6533b830fe1ef96bd1297931

RESEARCH PRODUCT

The molecular architecture of the thylakoid membrane from various classes of eukaryotic algae

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description

There is convincing consensus that the photosynthetic apparatus is of prokaryotic origin. The wide variety of algal plastids is mostly assumed to be the result of different endocytological events. Chloroplasts surrounded by two membranes as in rhodophytes and chlorophytes were considered as the association of a prokaryotic symbiont and a eukaryotic host, whereas algae having a chloroplast surrounded with more than two membranes can be delineated from an endocytological event of two eukaryotes (see S. Gibbs in this volume). Since chlorophyll b was neither combined with chlorophyll c nor with phycobiliproteins it was proposed that all present day chloroplasts can be integrated in three lines. Based on recent progress in sequencing the 28 S RNA from various algal classes (Perasso et al., 1989; Adoutte, this volume) it was suggest that these lines emerge as three distinct groups, although within the branches deep demarcations can be observed.