Introduction
Plants have two types of plastids: leucoplasts and chloroplasts. They have different purposes. Leucoplasts store nutrients such as starches, lipids, and proteins, whereas chloroplasts are responsible for photosynthesis. Further, plants have three types of cells: leucoplasts, chloroplasts, and chromoplasts.
Leucoplast and chloroplast vary most from one another in that chloroplast include pigments like chlorophyll and carotenoids whereas leucoplast does not.
Plants include two different forms of plastids: leucoplast and chloroplast. They carry out certain tasks for plants. Additionally, plants have plastids called leucoplasts that store resources like starch, lipids, and proteins, whereas chloroplasts are in charge of photosynthesis.
Leucoplast vs Chloroplast
The primary distinction between leucoplasts and chloroplasts is that the latter contains colors like chlorophyll and carotenoids, whilst leucoplasts do not. Leucoplasts are a kind of cell that is concentrated in plant food storage. Green-colored chloroplasts are specialized plastids. The colorful plastids known as chromoplasts are what give petals and other plant parts their distinctive hues.
The leucoplast is a small organelle found inside plant cells. It's a special kind of plastic that plants use to store their lipids, proteins, and carbohydrates. Leucoplasts are monochromatic. They, therefore, don't draw or damage pollinators. They also lack pigments necessary for photosynthetic activity. Leucoplasts also don't include certain colors. Leucoplasts, a kind of plastic, is used to store fat, proteins, and carbs.
Chloroplast is a kind of plastid that contains the photosynthetic molecules chlorophyll. Plants have highly significant organelles called chloroplasts that are used for photosynthetic processes. They are the most prevalent kind of plastid to be discovered in plants. The energy of sunlight is used by chloroplasts to create carbohydrates. Plastids are round, oval, or disc-shaped cells that play a role in the production and storage of food. Chloroplasts are a kind of plastid.
A tiny organelle called a plastid is present in the cytoplasm of plant cells. Research from the past suggests that photosynthetic microorganisms called cyanobacteria are the ancestors of plastids. By developing an endosymbiotic connection, they have infiltrated into eukaryotic plants and algae. Leucoplasts, chloroplasts, and chromoplasts are the three primary categories of plastids. Leucoplasts are colorless plastids with a specific function in plants: food storage. Chloroplasts are plastids with a green color that are designed specifically for photosynthesis. Chromoplasts are variously colored plastids that give petals and other plant components their distinctive colors. This is the primary distinction between chromoplast and leucoplast.
Difference Between Leucoplast and Chloroplast in Tabular Form
| Parameter of comparison | Leucoplast | Chloroplast |
| Definition | A colourless organelle taken from plant cells called a leucoplast is used to store starch or oil. | Photosynthesis takes place in the chloroplast, a plastid found in plant cells that contains chlorophyll. |
| pigments | Leucoplast disagrees. | Colours are present in chloroplast. |
| colour | Leucoplast has no colour. | The colour of chloroplast is green. |
| Density of stroma | fewer and denser | Denser |
| Functions | Starches, lipids, and proteins are among the nutrients that are stored in the leucoplast. | Photosynthesis is handled by the chloroplast. |
What is Leucoplast?
A specific kind of plastid called leucoplast serves as a storage component inside the plant cell. Leucoplasts are non-pigmented plastids, in contrast to chromoplasts and chloroplasts. That implies they lack colors like chlorophyll and carotenoids and stay colorless as a result. Leucoplasts often exist in the non-photosynthetic and uncovered portions of plants, such as roots, bulbs, and seeds, as a result of the absence of these pigments.
However, by storing proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates, leucoplasts provide a storage purpose. Additionally, proteinoplasts store proteins, elaioplasts store fat, and amyloplasts store starch. Additionally, the vascular plants' chloroplasts develop tannin-filled pockets, turning the chloroplast into a tannosome, a sort of leucoplast. After these pockets separate, a sizable tannin vacuole is created. In addition to their primary storage role, certain leucoplasts perform vital biochemical tasks, such as the production of fatty acids.
Due to the lack of these pigments, leucoplasts can also be found in non-photosynthetic and uncovered parts of plants, such as roots, bulbs, and seeds.
Leucoplasts, on the other hand, serve as a type of storage, assembling proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates. In addition, proteins are kept in proteinoplasts, fat is stored in elaioplasts, and starch is stored in amyloplasts. Additionally, the tannin-filled pockets produced by vascular plant chloroplasts convert the chloroplast into a tannosome, a kind of leucoplast.
Later, as these regions separate, a massive tannin vacuole emerges. Some white matter bodies perform crucial metabolic tasks, such as the synthesis of fatty acids, in addition to their primary storage function. Thylakoids and the photosynthetic chemical chlorophyll are found in chloroplasts, which are plastids that are green in color.
In the photosynthetic production of glucose, chloroplasts play a crucial role. Compared to chloroplasts, leucoplasts are smaller and have a wider range of shapes. They are most frequently found in non-photosynthetic tissues, such as bases, shoots, and seeds. They are mostly found in plant tissues that are enclosed from the environment.
Leucoplasts often have a varied form and are much smaller than chloroplasts. They are frequently called amoeboid structures. In tobacco callus and suspension, culture cells as well as in the epidermal cells of roots, hypocotyls, and petals, extensive networks of stromules connecting leucoplasts have been seen. As shown with proplastids in the root meristem, leucoplasts in some cell types at specific developmental stages are grouped around the nucleus with stromules extending to the cell periphery.
Etioplasts, are leucoplasts because they lack active pigment and are pre-granular, immature chloroplasts or chloroplasts that have been deprived of light. Etioplasts stop being leucoplasts and start to act as chloroplasts after being exposed to light for several minutes. Amyloplasts are bulky and contain starch. Seeds include protein-storing structures called proteinoplasts (pulses). Elaioplasts are found in seeds and are used to preserve lipids and oils. Oleosomes are another name for them.
What is Chloroplast?
The plastid found in plants that is green and responsible for photosynthesis is called a chloroplast. Chlorophylls, the primary classes of photosynthetic pigments present in plants, are responsible for the color green. Chlorophylls' primary job is to absorb solar energy and store it in ATP and NADPH molecules for use in the light reaction of photosynthesis. During the photosynthetic dark reaction, glucose is made by mixing carbon dioxide and water with the newly produced energy molecules. Chloroplasts in plants can also be used for fatty acid synthesis, amino acid synthesis, and immunological activity in addition to photosynthesis.
The energy molecules generated during photosynthesis are even employed to create glucose by combining carbon dioxide and water. Plants' chloroplasts can perform additional functions outside photosynthesis, such as fatty acid production, protein synthesis, and immunological activities. The chloroplast is protected by two membranes, the inner and outer membranes. Grana, or cylindrical cell bodies, are found in the stromal, or structure of the chloroplast.
Each chloroplast may contain 10 to 100 grana in the stroma. Grana have disc-shaped meninges thylakoids, which are where photosynthesis occurs. Chloroplasts are necessary for photosynthesis and include ribosomes, DNA, RNA, and soluble enzymes. The origin of chloroplasts is assumed to be a symbiotic relationship between photosynthetic bacteria and higher plants.
Chloroplasts have two pigments, chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b, which give them their distinctive green hue and set them apart from other plastid kinds. This pigment's ability to capture light energy for the photosynthetic process is one of its functions. In chloroplasts, other pigments, such as carotenoids, are found as pigment molecules that absorb solar energy and transmit it to chlorophyll.
Similarities Between Leucoplast and Chloroplast
Plants include two different forms of plastids: leucoplast and chloroplast.
- Proplastids, which are undifferentiated plastids, can develop into both leucoplasts and chloroplasts.
- Additionally, both have circular shapes.
- They have DNA.
- They are also surrounded by two membranes.
- Furthermore, both plastids play crucial roles in plants.
- Additionally, the plastids leucoplast and chloroplast may also change into different varieties of plastids.
Difference Between Leucoplast and Chloroplast in Points
Definition
Leucoplast is a term for an organelle that is colorless and found in plant cells that are used to store starch or oil, whereas chloroplast is a term for a plastid found in green plant cells that includes chlorophyll and is where photosynthesis occurs. Thus, this is the primary distinction between chloroplast and leucoplast.
Pigments
Leucoplast is devoid of colors, while chloroplast does, including carotenoids and chlorophyll. The primary distinction between leucoplast and chloroplast is this.
Colour
Leucoplast is hence colorless, whereas chloroplast is green.
Internal Structure
Furthermore, unlike chloroplasts, which have an independent core system of thylakoids physically separate from the envelope, leucoplasts have a cisternal or tubular stroma reticulum linked to the intermembrane space of the envelope. Thus, this is yet another way that leucoplast and chloroplast vary from one another.
The density of the Stroma
Leucoplast and chloroplast have different streams, with the stroma of the leucoplast being less dense and the stroma of the chloroplast being denser.
Function
Functionally, the storage of nutrients such as carbohydrates, fat, and proteins is carried out by the leucoplast, whilst photosynthesis is accomplished by the chloroplast. Thus, this is how leucoplast and chloroplast work differently.
Other Functions
Leucoplasts also have a part in the manufacture of various amino acids, tetrapyrrole compounds, and fatty acids like palmitic acid, whereas chloroplasts play a role in the immunological system of plants and the biosynthesis of fatty acids and amino acids.
Occurrence
Leucoplasts and chloroplasts vary from one another in that chloroplasts are found in the photosynthetic areas of a plant that are exposed to light, whereas leucoplasts are found mostly in regions of a plant that are not exposed to light.
Transformation
While chloroplasts in aging, ripening or stressed sections of the plant change into chromoplasts by a significant increase in the accumulation of carotenoid pigments, leucoplasts can change into amyloplasts, elaioplasts, or proteinoplasts. Another distinction between leucoplast and chloroplast is this.
- In contrast to the chloroplast, a plastid found in plant cells that contains chlorophyll and is where photosynthesis occurs, the leucoplast is a colorless organelle found in plant cells that contains starch or oil.
- Leucoplast, on the other hand, is devoid of pigments like chlorophyll and carotenoids whereas chloroplast does.
- Leucoplast lacks color, whereas chloroplast has a green hue.
- The stroma of the chloroplast is thicker than that of the leucoplast.
While the chloroplast is in charge of photosynthesis, the leucoplast is in charge of storing resources such as proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates.
Conclusion
A particular class of plastid called leucoplast is in charge of storing resources including proteins, starches, and lipids. Leucoplast is colorless because it lacks colors and is also colorless. Additionally, it may be found in the plant's hidden areas. In contrast, plants' chloroplasts are the plastids in charge of photosynthesis. It includes carotenoids and chlorophyll, which are photosynthetic pigments. Chloroplasts, which are found inside the cells of the photosynthetic sections of the cell, are hence green in hue. This is how leucoplast and chloroplast vary from one another.
Small organelles called plastids are present in the cytoplasm of plant cells. As a result, plastids are believed to have descended from cyanobacteria, a kind of photosynthetic bacteria. They have formed symbiotic relationships with algae and eukaryotic plants. In plants, leucoplasts produce porphyrin chemicals like heme, different amino acids, and fatty acids like palmitic acid, whereas chloroplasts are crucial for the production of fatty acids and amino acids as well as serving an immunological purpose.
Leucoplast lacks color since it doesn't contain any. Additionally, it might be discovered in parts of the plant that aren't exposed to sunlight. The plastid responsible for photosynthesis in plants, on the other hand, is the chloroplast. It contains photosynthetic pigments like chlorophyll and carotenoids. Chloroplasts, which are present in the cells of the photosynthetic parts of the cell, are so green in hue.
References
- Kochunni, Deena T, and Jazir Haneef. “Plastids – Leucoplasts, Chromoplasts and Chloroplasts.” Biology Exams 4 U, Available Here.
- Carde, J P. “Leucoplasts: a Distinct Kind of Organelles Lacking Typical 70S Ribosomes and Free Thylakoids.” Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports., U.S. National Library of Medicine, May 1984
