Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 11, 2026

Studying the Supramolecular Organization of Photosynthetic Membranes within Freeze-fractured Leaf Tissues by Cryo-scanning Electron Microscopy
Published on: June 23, 2016
Biogenesis and evolution of photosynthetic (thylakoid) membranes
1Botanisches Institut der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München, Germany.
Abstract:
Work in molecular phylogeny during the past few years has documented that the biogenesis, maintenance, adaptation, and controlled resorption of thylakoid (photosynthetic) membranes are by far more complex than the requirements for maintaining their function, especially in plants (eukaryotic photoautotrophs). Plants, due to their genome compartmentation that originated in a cohabitation of cells (endosymbiotic events), have evolved an exquisite set of regulatory mechanisms for their energy-transducing organelles. These operate in concert with basically ancient regulatory circuits originating in the organelle ancestors. It appears that the biogenesis of thylakoid membranes, as that of chloroplasts in general, cannot be understood without knowledge of the history of the cells.
Related Concept Videos
The Anatomy of Chloroplasts
Structure of Chloroplasts
A...
Eukaryotic Evolution
Contrary to the endosymbiont theory, the eukaryote-first hypothesis proposes that the simpler prokaryotic and...
Protein Transport to the Thylakoids
Oxygenic Photosynthesis
Biosynthesis of Lipids
Origin of Photosynthesis

