Abstract
The ability to synthetize chlorophyll pigments and to build the ultrastructures of the photosynthetic apparatus was studied in leaflets ofMetasequoia glyptostroboides, experimentally darkened before the buds started swelling.
The content in chlorophyll pigments, was found to be about 50% that of normally lighted leaflets.
Chloroplasts of leaflets of darkened buds show a photosynthetic apparatus with grana, formed by many thylakoids and by stroma lamellae and, in leaflet fragments fixed with glutaraldehyde and osmium tetraoxide, osmiophilic globules. Prolamellar bodies in direct connection with thylakoids are evident in these plastids.
In plastids of leaflets of normally lighted buds prolamellar bodies are not present; starch grains, lacking in plastids of darkened buds, are present instead.
These results, showing for the first time greening and building of a photosynthetic apparatus in leaflets of buds ofGymnospermae grown in darkness, are interpreted phylogenetically.
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This investigation was supported by a grant of CNR, Rome, Italy.
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Laudi, G., Manzini, M.L. Chlorophyll content and plastid ultrastructure in leaflets ofMetasequoia glyptostroboides . Protoplasma 84, 185–190 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02075954
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02075954