STUDIES ON CHLOROPLAST DEVELOPMENT AND REPLICATION IN EUGLENA

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Abstract
When Euglena gracilis is grown under vitamin B12 deficiency conditions, the amount of protein and of chlorophyll per cell increase with decrease of B12 in the medium and consequently in the cell. The increase in cell protein is proportional to and precedes an increase in the number of chloroplasts per cell. This replication of the chloroplasts under deficiency conditions is not accompanied by nuclear or cell division. It is concluded that chloroplast replication in Euglena gracilis is independent of nuclear and cellular replication, at least under B12 deficiency conditions. We established a graph of the growth of Euglena under different concentrations of vitamin B12 added to the growth medium, which permitted us to calculate that at least 22,000 molecules of vitamin B12 per cell are required to give normal growth.

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