Crossword clues for chloroplast
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Chloroplast \Chlo"ro*plast\, n. [Pref. chloro- + Gr. ? to mold, form.] (Biol.) A plastid containing chlorophyll, developed only in cells exposed to the light. Chloroplasts are minute flattened granules, usually occurring in great numbers in the cytoplasm near the cell wall, and consist of a colorless ground substance saturated with chlorophyll pigments. Under light of varying intensity they exhibit phototactic movements. In animals chloroplasts occur only in certain low forms.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1887, from German chloroplast (1884, E. Strasburger), shortened from chloroplastid (1883, F.W. Schimper); see chloro- + -plast.
Wiktionary
n. (context cytology English) An organelle found in the cells of green plants, and in photosynthetic algae, where photosynthesis takes place.
WordNet
n. plastid containing chlorophyll and other pigments; in plants that carry out photosynthesis
Wikipedia
Chloroplasts are organelles, specialized subunits, in plant and algal cells. Their discovery inside plant cells is usually credited to Julius von Sachs (1832–1897), an influential botanist and author of standard botanical textbooks – sometimes called "The Father of Plant Physiology".
Chloroplasts' main role is to conduct photosynthesis, where the photosynthetic pigment chlorophyll captures the energy from sunlight and converts it and stores it in the energy-storage molecules ATP and NADPH while freeing oxygen from water. They then use the ATP and NADPH to make organic molecules from carbon dioxide in a process known as the Calvin cycle. Chloroplasts carry out a number of other functions, including fatty acid synthesis, much amino acid synthesis, and the immune response in plants. The number of chloroplasts per cell varies from 1 in algae up to 100 in plants like Arabidopsis and wheat.
A chloroplast is one of three types of plastids, characterized by its high concentration of chlorophyll, the other two types, the leucoplast and the chromoplast, contain little chlorophyll and do not carry out photosynthesis.
Chloroplasts are highly dynamic—they circulate and are moved around within plant cells, and occasionally pinch in two to reproduce. Their behavior is strongly influenced by environmental factors like light color and intensity. Chloroplasts, like mitochondria, contain their own DNA, which is thought to be inherited from their ancestor—a photosynthetic cyanobacterium that was engulfed by an early eukaryotic cell. Chloroplasts cannot be made by the plant cell and must be inherited by each daughter cell during cell division.
With one exception (the amoeboid Paulinella chromatophora), all chloroplasts can probably be traced back to a single endosymbiotic event, when a cyanobacterium was engulfed by the eukaryote. Despite this, chloroplasts can be found in an extremely wide set of organisms, some not even directly related to each other—a consequence of many secondary and even tertiary endosymbiotic events.
The word chloroplast is derived from the Greek words chloros (χλωρός), which means green, and plastes (πλάστης), which means "the one who forms".
Usage examples of "chloroplast".
They could not be plants, or green, without their chloroplasts, which run the photosynthetic enterprise and generate oxygen for the rest of us.
As it turns out, chloroplasts are also separate creatures with their own genomes, speaking their own language.
It has recently been reported that the nucleic acid of chloroplasts is, in fact, homologous with that of certain photosynthetic microorganisms.
Actually, the suggestion that chloroplasts and mitochondria might be endosymbionts was made as long ago as 1885, but one might expect, nevertheless, that confirmation of the suggestion would have sent the investigators out into the streets, hallooing.
There may have been elements of luck in the emergence of chloroplasts, but once these things were on the scene, the evolution of the sky became absolutely ordained.
He was looking specifically for chlorophyll, chloroplasts, magnesium, and other signs of plant life.
The chloroplasts of a plant cell-small green particles containing chlorophyll-absorb the energy of sunlight to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen atoms.
The cotyledons emerged and chloroplasts oriented themselves to the light.
He was naked, his green skin exposed to the array of sunlamps mounted on the ceiling, his chloroplasts churning out a flood of sugar that he found more satisfying than any pre-dinner drink had ever been.
At least, they have chloroplasts in their skin, they photosynthesize, they love bright light.
Eventually, those algae became the chloroplasts that now handle the processes of photosynthesis in plants.
And they were descended from primordial bacteria just as chloroplasts were from algae.
If they removed chloroplasts from plant cells, again the consequence would be widespread death, catastrophe, for plant photosynthesis provided the raw material, the food, for all animal life.
Chloroplast is a plastid which contains chlorophyll, with or without any other pigments, embedded singly or in considerable numbers in the cytoplasm of a plant cell.
The mycelia pumped energetic photons directly into the chloroplasts, having bucket-brigaded them down their endless molecular corridors, not spilling a single one into the outside environment.