Stochastic partitioning of chloroplasts at cell division in the alga Olisthodiscus, and compensating control of chloroplast replication

We asked how chloroplasts in a unicellular marine alga are replicated and partitioned at cell division so that each daughter cell will receive the appropriate number of copies. The data were obtained simply by counting chloroplasts in pairs of daughter cells immediately after cell division. The results show that chloroplast partitioning is not always equal; however, it is equal much more often than predicted by the binomial distribution of chloroplast numbers that would be expected if partitioning were strictly random. The parental chloroplasts were partitioned equally in approximately 76% of the divisions, while in the remaining 24% the deviations from equality were very small. To maintain a reasonable range of chloroplast numbers in the face of unequal partitioning, there must be some form of compensating control of chloroplast replication. Our data suggest that daughter cells that receive very large numbers of chloroplasts go directly to the next division without replicating their chloroplasts, while cells with very small numbers of chloroplasts go through two rounds of chloroplast replication before dividing.

Inhibition by Sethoxydim of Chloroplast Biogenesis, Development and Replication in Barley Seedlings

Chloroplast Biogenesis, Inhibition of Chloroplast Replication, Sethoxydim. Sun-Type Chloroplast Sethoxydim not only blocks leaf growth and development of barley seedlings but also inhibits chloroplast biogenesis at all stages of development from proplastids to prochloroplasts, young and mature chloroplasts. Not only thylakoid synthesis, thylakoid multiplication and grana for­mation are affected, but also chloroplast replication. The chloroplasts of secondary leaves which before the sethoxydim application are in the stage of young, developing chloroplasts, remain in this differentiation stage when treated with sethoxydim. With their ultrastructural characteristics (e.g. lower stacking degree, higher proportion of exposed membranes, a lower thylakoid frequency etc.) they resemble sun-type chloroplasts. In the shoot meristem sethoxydim-treated plants contain only proplastids, whereas the plastids in the shoot meristem of control plants are already in the developmental stage between prochloroplasts to young chloroplasts. Mesophyll cells of sethoxydim-treated plants contain only one third of the chloroplasts found in the controls.