easily-made fresh mounts for showing chromoplasts

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jon g - 18 Aug 2005 19:14 GMT

Hello, all. I am looking for an easily available source of tissue that
high school students can use to see red or or orange chromoplasts in
freehand sections or peels. If memory serves, red onion has
anthocyanin-colored cytoplasm, not chromoplasts.

Any suggestions?

Many thanks.

Jon Greenberg
Pequannock High School
Pequannock, NJ

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David R. Hershey - 19 Aug 2005 02:10 GMT

Some other common sources of chromoplasts for fresh mounts are carrot
root and marigold petals.

Anthocyanins usually occur in vacuoles. Carotenoids are in
chromoplasts. Over 11,000 flowering plant species, the Caryophyllids,
have betalain pigments instead of anthocyanins, e.g. red beet roots.
Betalains are also in vacuoles.

The USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference can give a
good indication of which fruits and vegetables are rich in
chromoplasts. Look for yellow, red and orange fruits and vegetables
with a high vitamin A, carotene or lycopene content. Yellow squash,
orange cantaloupe, and orange sweet potato are high in vitamin A. Red
watermelon, red grapefruit and guava are rich in lycopene.

http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/

David R. Hershey

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Natural Science Forum / Biology / Botany / August 2005

easily-made fresh mounts for showing chromoplasts