Chloroplast greening

The Vepex process developed in Hungary (Table 9) involves disintegration of plant materials followed by double screw pressing to maximize juice production. Green chloroplastic protein is removed by direct steam-injection heat treatment at 82°C with the addition of flocculents and centrifugation. The white protein fraction is separated from the chlorophyU-free process juice by direct steam injection at 80°C, followed by centrifugation and drying (94). 

Fig. 6. Sequence comparisons of Rieske proteins from spinach chloroplasts, beef heart mitochondria, green sulfur bacteria, and firmicutes. The extended insertion of proteobacterial Rieske proteins as compared to the mitochondrial one is indicated by a dotted arrow. The redox-potential-influencing Ser residue is marked by a vertical arrow. The top and the bottom sequence numberings refer to the spinach and bovine proteins, respectively. Fully conserved residues are marked by dark shading, whereas the residues conserved in the b6f-group are denoted by lighter shading.

Chlorophyll b occurs as an accessory pigment of the light-harvesting systems in land plants and green algae, and comprises one-third (or less) of total chlorophyll. The biosynthesis of chlorophyll b has been an area of active research particularly regarding its compartmentalization in chloroplast membranes, identification of the gene for chlorophyllide a oxidase, and characterization of the enzymes involved. ... 

Subsequent cyclizations, dehydrogenations, oxidations, etc., lead to the individual naturally occurring carotenoids, but little is known about the biochemistry of the many interesting final structural modifications that give rise to the hundreds of diverse natural carotenoids. The carotenoids are isoprenoid compounds and are biosynthesised by a branch of the great isoprenoid pathway from the basic C5-terpenoid precursor, isopentenyl diphosphate (IPP). The entire biosynthesis takes place in the chloroplasts (in green tissues) or chromoplasts (in yellow to red tissues). 

Typically several different carotenoids occur in plant tissues containing this class of pigments. Carotenoids are accumulated in chloroplasts of all green plants as mixtures of a- and P-carotene, P-cryptoxanthin, lutein, zeaxanthin, violaxanthin, and neoxanthin. These pigments are found as complexes formed by noncovalent bonding with proteins. In green leaves, carotenoids are free, nonesterified, and their compositions depend on the plant and developmental conditions. In reproductive... 

Photosynthesis is the reverse of reaction (30.1) the formation of carbohydrates and oxygen from water and carbon dioxide with solar energy. Photosynthesis occurs in the chloroplasts contained in the cells of green plants. The chloroplasts hold two types of photosynthetic systems, which are called PSl and PS 11. These systems... 

The photosynthetic apparatus in green plants and algae is located in the chloroplast, which is a flattened, double-membraned structure about 150-200 A thick/4,5 The two flat membranes lie one above the other and are united at their peripheries. These double-membraned structures have been termed thylakoids (from the Greek sacklike )/ Each membrane of the thylakoid consists of a water-insoluble lipoprotein complex which contains the light-absorbing chlorophyll and other pigments utilized in photosynthesis. 

Plastids are any of a number of interrelated organelles occurring in the cytoplasm of plant cells in which starch, oil, protein, pigments, etc., are stored. The chlorophyll-containing chloroplasts, the site of photosynthesis, are referred to as green plastids. 

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