Scientists found molecular evidence supporting the idea that chloroplasts originated as energy-generating organelles and only later evolved to support carbon assimilation in plant cells. One of the ...

Experimental seedlings in the laboratory. UC Davis plant biologists have discovered how chloroplasts, responsible for photosynthesis in green plants, also play a key role in plant immunity to ...

Under cold conditions, not only the mother plant but also the father plant can pass on its chloroplasts to the offspring. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology in ...

Life as we know it wouldn’t be possible without chloroplasts — those tiny, bean-shaped structures inside plant and algae cells that harness the sun’s energy to turn water and carbon dioxide into ...

Chloroplasts may seem like docile farmers of light. But inside these microscopic plant and algal cell structures lurks the spirit of a warrior. When a pathogen attacks a plant, chloroplasts stop ...

More than a decade ago, plant geneticists noticed something peculiar when they looked at grafted plants. Where two plants grew together, the cells of each plant showed signs of having picked up ...

A certain species of sea slug steals chloroplasts from algae and houses its contraband in special organelles that it can raid for food in times of need “It was the wildest thing that we had seen,” ...