Question

How much detail, if any, can you see inside chloroplasts using the light microscope? Why?

Answer 1

Using a light microscope,one can view cell walls, vacuoles ,cytoplasm, chloroplasts,nucleus and cell membrane.

Light microscopic observations of grana containing chloroplasts in living cells of leaves of numerous species of plants, including both monocotyledons and dicotyledons,have allowed specification of numerous parameters of choloplast structure.Choloroplasts are thin and saucer - shaped,with the convex surface facing the cell wall and the concave surface facing the vacuole.The thickness of grana containing and starch containing region of chloroplasts does not exceed 2 um although the lenght may reach more than 15um in choloplasts containing 150 grana.The grana do not overlap each other and are in a plane of focus above that of starch grains.The grana are titled with respect to each other and are located at varying levels with respect to the convex surface of chloroplast .In slightly disrupted, isolated chloroplasts,the grana are sometimes arranged in in rows and serially connected to each other by a fine thread.In living cells,some chloroplasts exhibit a distinct spiral arrangement of the grana.Using these observations and the dimensions derived from them ,a new conception of the three dimensional structure of the grana containing region of the choloplast has been obtained.In this conception of the three dimensional structure of the grana containing region of the chloroplast have been obtained .The grana are uniformly thin,non overlapping cylinders,connected in a single series as s string of beads and wound into a slightly raised spiral(a helix).Starch grains when present are located in the concavity of the hekix.The lenght of the string of grana determines the area of the grana containing region of chloroplast.

These details can be found using light microscopic because these microscopes use lenses and light to magnify cell parts.But it can be used to magnify the organelle like chloroplast