In: Biology
You want to study ribosomes in plant cells and plan to use a
protocol based on ultracentrifugation in cesium chloride (CsCl) in
order to isolate these structures. What do you expect to
find?
A.
Only 70S ribosomes
B.
Both 70 and 80S ribosomes
C.
Plants are boring
D.
Only 80S ribosomes
Answer: ‘B’ both 70S and 80S
Explanation: Ribosomes are complexes of RNA and proteins which perform the function of protein synthesis. 70S (S stands for Svedberg units) ribosome is a characteristic of prokaryotes, which has two subunits, a smaller 30S subunit and 50S larger subunit.
80 S ribosome is a characteristic of eukaryotic cell which has 40S as the smaller subunit and 60S is the larger subunit.
In the CsCl ultracentrifugation, ribosomes get separated according their buoyant density in CsCl.
Plants being eukaryotic cell they show the presence of 80S ribosomes, but in chloroplasts and mitochondria of the plant cell there are 70S ribosome. (Chloroplasts are the plant cell organelle responsible for photosynthesis, mitochondria are the organelles responsible for aerobic respiration.) Chloroplast/mitochondria ribosomes are similar to the 70S ribosomes of prokaryotes and they are different from the 80S ribosome present in the plant cell cytoplasm.
As mitochondria and chloroplast show presence of DNA and 70S ribosomes, it is thought that these organelles must have originated from symbiotic bacteria supporting the endosymbiotic theory of evolution.