Chloroplast ultrastructure in leaves of Cucumis sativus chlorophyll mutant

Abstract

The developing and young leaves of <em>Cucumis sativus</em> chlorophyll mutants are yellow, when mature they become green and do not differ in their colour from those of control plants. The mesophyll of yellow leaves contains a diversiform plastid population with a varying degree of defectiveness, which is mainly manifested in the reduction or disorganization of the typical thylakoid system. DNA areas, ribosome-like particles and aggregates of electron-dense material are preserved in the stroma of mutated plastids. Starch grains are deficient. Apart from mutated plastids, chloroplasts with a normal structure, as in control plants, were also observed.The leaf greening process is accompanied by a reconstruction and rearrangement of the inner chloroplast lamellar system and an ability to accumulate starch. However, in the mutant chloroplasts as compared with control-plant ones, an irregular arrangement of grana and reduced number of inter-grana thylakoids can be seen. An osmiophilic substance stored in the stroma of mutated plastids and the vesicles formed from an internal plastid membrane take part in restoration of the membrane system.