ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MATURE STRUCTURE AND ONTOGENY IN THE GRANA OF CHLOROPLASTS

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Abstract
Some reports on chloroplast infrastructure have emphasized a helical pattern of interconnections among the compartments of the grana. This pattern has been related to a theory of spiral–cyclical growth of grana stacks. The occurrence of multiple helices on the grana in angiosperm chloroplasts impugns the ontogenetic significance of the helical pattern. The compartments of a granum do not discriminate among the helices for quantity or quality of interconnections. No genetic helix can be distinguished. The theory of spiral–cyclical growth of grana, as currently stated, is inadequate to account for the in situ structure of normal grana in the chloroplasts of angiosperms.