Chloroplasts Flashcards
What do chloroplasts carry out?
Photosynthesis.
What shape are chloroplasts?
They vary but are typically disc-shaped.
What size are chloroplasts?
2-10 micrometers long and 1 micrometer in diameter.
What are the main features to a chloroplast?
The chloroplast envelope, grana/granum, thylakoids, and the stroma.
What is the chloroplast envelope?
A double plasma membrane that surrounds the organelle.
What is the chloroplast envelope highly selective with?
What is allows to enter and leave the chloroplast.
What are grana?
Stacks of up to 100 thylakoids.
What are thylakoids?
Disc-like structures that stack to form a granum.
What is within the thylakoids?
Chlorophyll.
What do some thylakoids have?
Tubular extensions that join up with thylakoids in adjacent grana.
What happens in the grana?
The first stage of photosynthesis takes place.
What is the stroma?
A fluid-filled matrix where the second stage of photosynthesis takes place.
What is within the stroma?
A number of other structures such as starch grains.
How are chloroplasts adapted for carrying out photosynthesis?
Granal membranes provide a large surface area for the attachment of chlorophyll, electron carriers and enzymes that carry out the first stage of photosynthesis, the fluid of the stroma contains enzymes to make sugars in the second stage of photosynthesis, and chloroplasts contain DNA and ribosomes to quickly and easily manufacture proteins needed for photosynthesis.
