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Purity of Chloroplasts Prepared from the Siphonous Green Alga, Caulerpa simpliciuscula, as Determined by Their Ultrastructure and Their Enzymic Content ¹

Russell Grimwade School of Biochemistry, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3052 Australia

The ultrastructure and enzyme distribution in chloroplasts and other subcellular fractions isolated from the siphonous green alga, Caulerpa simpliciuscula, are described. The isolated chloroplasts were similar in appearance to those in the tissue from which they were derived, and in typical preparations 70% or more were intact. Chloroplasts which had lost their outer envelopes could be separated from intact plastids by centrifugation at low speeds through gradients of colloidal silica. Intact chloroplasts separated in this way retained their photosynthetic capacity and were impermeable to ferricyanide ions. The chloroplast preparations separated by differential centrifugation and refractionated using either discontinuous or continuous Percoll gradients contained non-chloroplast material. It was estimated that this amounted to a maximum of 10% of the mitochondrial population and 6% of cytoplasm extracted from the plant. The contaminating material surrounded the chloroplasts in a thin layer and was surrounded by a membrane.

¹ This work was supported in part by the Australian Research Grants Commission.