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Fusion of spinach mesophyll protoplasts with carrot root parenchyma protoplasts and the effect on spinach
1Department of Biological Sciences, The University of Newcastle, New South Wales 2308, Australia.
Abstract:
Mesophyll protoplasts of spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) have been fused, using polyethylene glycol, with root parenchyma protoplasts of carrot (Daucus carota L.) to enable studies of spinach chloroplasts in a foreign cytoplasm. After 24 h culture, electron microscopy of the fused protoplasts showed many intact chloroplasts, but some chloroplasts were completely disrupted, showing loss of chloroplast envelope and stroma. Spinach protoplasts showed normal chloroplast structure 24 h after PEG treatment. These observations are consistent with a type of incompatibility between some spinach chloroplasts and carrot cytoplasm.
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