Abstract
Chlorella, a green alga, has a chloroplast that contains thylakoid membrane with photosynthetic pigments both under light and dark conditions. We have studied their fine structures and spectra of subchloroplast regions by fluorescence spectromicroscope, in an effort to understand correlation between ultrastructural morphology and physiological functions of chloroplasts in general. Chlorella chloroplast seems to be an interesting control sample compared with plant chloroplast, from the viewpoint of spectromicroscopic investigation. Chlorella chloroplast is free from differentiation. It is a single chloroplast in the small cell, where light can penetrate easily. It is thus possible to quantitatively estimate the concentration of the photosynthetic pigments, by which reabsorption effects on subcellular fluorescence spectra can be well appreciated. Electron microscopic studies in the past have shown that it is free from granal stacking of thylakoid membrane. It is thus regarded as a nice control sample in comparison with plant chloroplast having granal stacking.