Fine structure and pigment conversion in isolated etiolated proplastids.

Proplastids containing a prolamellar body were isolated from leaves of etiolated bean plants. The isolation methods do not necessarily lead to destruction of their submicroscopic structure and most of the isolated proplastids show well preserved outer membranes, lamellar strands, and the prolamellar body. Morphological intactness of the proplastids varies; certain leaf fractions contain single prolamellar bodies as well as proplastids. Since pellets after centrifugation between 350 g and 1000 to 3000 g contain intact proplastids and, as was shown by quantitative experiments, the same fractions show photoconversion of protochlorophyll to chlorophyll, it is supposed that the isolated particles probably retain many of the properties which are characteristic of them in situ. Isolated proplastids may thus be a valuable tool in investigations on the development of the photosynthetic apparatus.