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Chloroplast

A chloroplast is an organelle used to capture light energy from the sun to produce free energy stored in ATP through photosynthesis. It's found in plants and eukaryotic algae that conduct photosynthesis, and it is what gives plants their green coloration.

Chloroplasts may have existed independent of other organisms when they first evolved. They are one of the plastids, or photosynthetic organelles that conduct photosynthesis, and play a similar functional role to mitochondria in animal cells. Like mitochondria, chloroplasts have a double membrane with intermembrane space, their own DNA, and metabolize energy, and the inner space of both is composed of reticulated foldings.

Photosynthetic proteins inside the chloroplast bind chlorophyll. (During fall, the removal of chlorophyll exposes other pigments in the plant, like xanthophylls, which gives leaves their brilliant colouration. ) Chlorophyll and other pigments in the plant absorb most of the energy from sunlight, releasing the energy in a process that creates ATP and NADPH to ultimately form sugars.

Web Resources On Chloroplast

Cell Organelles: The Chloroplast
Chloroplast Description

Book Resources On Chloroplast

Structure and Function of Chloroplasts by Martin Gibbs (Editor)
Molecular Biology and Biotechnology of Plant Organelles : Chloroplasts and Mitochondria by Henry Daniell (Editor) & Christine Chase (Editor)

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