The correlative change of pigments with chromoplast morphogenesis in the pericarp
of yellow and red pimentos during fruit ripening was examined by pigment spectrophotometry
and electronmicrosopy. The metamorphosis of plastids, chloroplasts to chromoplasts, occurred
with the decrease of chlorophyll contents and the appearance of newly synthesized carotenoids,
chloroxanthin in yellow pimentos and possibly capsanthin and/or capsorubin in red pimentos.
As ripening proceeded, in plastids, plastoglobuli increased in both number and size, in contrast
with the degradation of grana-stack and the fragmentation of stromal thylakoids. The plastids
of yellow-ripe fruit pericarps contained exclusively plastoglobuli of various sizes at the center of
stroma, indicating G (globular)-type chromoplasts, while the plastids of red-ripe fruit pericarps
included a few enlarged plastoglobuli and electron-dense inclusions of various configurations,
which possibly transformed from plastoglobuli to finally form needle-shaped carotenoid
crystalloids. They were determined as an intermediate-type between G-type and F (filament)-type
chromoplasts, and it was reconfirmed that, during chromoplast maturation, needle-shaped
carotenoid crystalloids are formed by the elongation of enlarged plastoglobuli, concomitant with
the increase of cartotenoid contents.
雑誌名
Science Journal of Kanagawa University
巻
19
ページ
51 - 56
発行年
2008-06-30
ISSN
1880-0483
書誌レコードID
AA12068302
著者版フラグ
publisher
その他の言語のタイトル
Pigment Changes and Ultrastructural Morphogenesis of Chromoplasts during Fruit Ripening of Pimentos