Salk Scientists Uncover How Plants Thrive Using a Natural Mechanism to Recycle Chloroplasts (IMAGE)
Caption
In plants, chloroplasts can accumulate high levels of toxic singlet oxygen, a reactive oxygen species formed during photosynthesis. In these cells, most of the chloroplasts (green organelles) and mitochondria (red organelles) appear healthy. However, the chloroplast in the top left of the image is being selectively degraded and is interacting with the central vacuole (blue). Salk scientists reveal how this strategy to degrade singlet oxygen-damaged chloroplasts may help a cell avoid any further oxidative damage during photosynthesis.
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Salk Institute
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