Whereas the double-membrane-limited chloroplasts of red and green algae and higher plants are believed to have evolved from endosymbiotic photosynthetic prokaryotes, the quadruple-membrane-bound chloroplasts characteristic of some algal classes may have originated from photosynthetic eukaryotic endosymbionts. The chloroplast compartments of two such algal groups, the Cryptophyceae and Chlorarachniophyceae, contain organelles called nucleomorphs which are postulated to be the vestigial nuclei of these endosymbionts. The demonstration of DNase-sensitive 4$ sp prime$-6-diamidino-2-phenylindole fluorescence and DNA-like fibrils in the nucleomorphs strongly support this hypothesis. / Cryptomonads and red algae, the proposed ancestors of cryptomonad chloroplasts, contain phycobiliprotein pigments. Although immunological and amino acid sequencing data indicate the phycobiliproteins of these two algal groups are evolutionarily closely related, they differ in their intracellular location. In red algae, phycobiliproteins are attached to the stromal surfaces of thylakoid membranes, while in cryptomonads, immunoelectron microscopical results indicate the proteins are located in the thylakoid lumen, in close association with the membrane.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.75842 |
| Date | January 1988 |
| Creators | Ludwig, Martha |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Biology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 000730644, proquestno: AAINL48526, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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