Permanent plastid — nuclear complexes (PNCs) in plant cells

Conventional opinion assumes random distribution of plastids in the plant cell and light regulated movement realised with a help of stromules and actin microfilaments. In several organisms from protists to plants the joining of chloroplasts to the nucleus has been mentioned as a phenomenon [1–3]. However, little is known what plants and tissues and how frequently contain these structures? Whether appearance of PNC in cell depends on the state of differentiation? What is physiologic role of the PNC.

The Synapse-Like Interaction between Chloroplast, dictyosome, and Other Cell Compartments during Increased Ethylene Production in Leaves of Rye (Secale cereale L.)

Rye (Secale cereale L.) plants were treated with an ethylene releaser ethephon (2-chloroethylphosphonic acid) in concentration of 4×10−2 M. We studied electron microscopically, if and how chloroplasts interact with well-documented sites of ethylene production/binding, i.e., with endoplasmic reticulum, dictyosomes, mitochondria, plasma membrane, and tonoplast. During the sharp increase of ethylene synthesis in mesophyll cells of rye leaves, the direct local continguity of chloroplast envelope or envelope protrusions with the above mentioned cell compartments was typical. Moreover, a large number and diversity of versatile chloroplast-dictyosome associations were conspicuous, in which both th…

Plastid-nuclear complexes in the photosynthesizing cells from their mitosis up to programmed death

Permanent plastid-nuclear complexes (PNCs) exist in tobacco cells from their mitosis up to programmed cell death (PCD). PNCs in senescing cells of tobacco leaves were typical by enclosure of peroxisomes and mitochondria among chloroplasts which were in contact with nucleus. Such a complex position provides simultaneous interaction of these organelles and direct regulation of metabolism and PCD avoiding the cytosol.

Session 10 Photosynthesis