Chlorophyll and Protein Interrelationships in Ananas comosus (L.) Merr.

Studies on a quantitative separation and analysis of chloroplastic matter by different investigators have revealed that chlorophyll is held by chemical forces on proteinaceous matter. This matter, named phyllochlorin by MESTRE (17), chloroplastin by STOLL (37), photosynthin by FRENCH (8), and chloroglobin by RABINOWITCH (21), is presumably identical with the substance composing the stroma of chloroplasts. FREY-WYSSLING (9), discussing the composition of chloroplasts, stated that, according to GUILLERMOND, MANGENOT, and PLANTEFOL (13) and SHARP (24), the structure of the chloroplasts of higher plants is homogeneous and not granular with small green particles imbedded in a colorless stroma, as postulated by MEYER (18) and SCHIMPER (22), and that the granulations are artifacts. According to HEITZ (15), the grana are not spheres but disks oriented parallel to the surface of the disk-shaped particles which alone contain the chlorophyll. NOACK (20) observed that colloidal chlorophyll does not show fluorescence except when adsorbed in monomolecular layers. Also, EULER et al. (7) have reached a similar conclusion from determinations of the quantity of chlorophyll in one single plastid.