Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 16, 2026

Tomato Analyzer: A Useful Software Application to Collect Accurate and Detailed Morphological and Colorimetric Data from Two-dimensional Objects
Published on: March 16, 2010
Pigment content and leaf plastid ultrastructure in the tomato mutant lutescent-2
1Istituto e Orto Botanico, Università di Modena, Viale Caduti in Guerra, 127, 41100 Modena, Italy.
Abstract:
The non-lethal tomato mutant «lutescent-2» shows an early yellowing of normal developed leaves. Its ripe fruits display a yellow colouring, red pigment synthesis being delayed by up to two weeks. Typical pigment synthesis, related to leaf maturation, does not occur in mutant leaves. Both the concentration of chl a and chl b start to decrease very quickly at the end of leaf expansion. Early yellowing of «1-2» leaves appears to be related to the reduced car(470) content, which leads to chlorophyll photooxidation. Structural evidence of a deficiency in car(470) content in young «1- 2» plastids is given by a reduction of stroma thylakoids as well as by a limited grana stacking. The altered balance between the two pigment classes determined an active, even if incomplete, conversion of chloroplasts to chromoplast-like organelles.
Related Concept Videos
Light Acquisition
Epistasis
Photoreceptors and Plant Responses to Light
The Anatomy of Chloroplasts
Structure of Chloroplasts
A...
Protein Transport to the Inner Chloroplast Membrane
Protein Transport to the Outer Chloroplast Membrane
Two models describe the mechanism of precursor recognition and entry across the outer membrane through the TOC complex. Model 1 suggests the newly synthesized precursor binds to the TOC receptor 159 and forms a complex.

