Instituto Nacional de Investigación Agropecuaria (INIA), Salto, Uruguay.
Instituto de Agroquímica y Tecnología de Alimentos, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (IATA-CSIC), Valencia, Spain.
Methods Mol Biol. 2020;2083:235-244. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-9952-1_18.
Plastids are cell organelles that, beside other functions, have the capability to store carotenoids in specialized structures, which may vary among the different plant species, tissues or according to the carotenoid complement. Fruits are an important source of carotenoids, and during ripening, chloroplasts differentiate into chromoplasts that are able to accumulate large amounts of carotenoids, rendering then the characteristic fruit coloration. Whereas lycopene or β-carotene may accumulate as crystal in the chromoplasts of some fruit, other xanthophyll-accumulating fruits differentiate plastoglobuli as a preferred system to enhance carotenoids stability and storage. Visualization of plastid ultrastructure and their transformation during ripening or in fruit of contrasting coloration are fundamental objectives within carotenoids research in fruits. Therefore, in this chapter, we describe a protocol for the visualization and analysis of plastid ultrastructure by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), specially designed and adapted to fruit tissues.
质体是细胞器官，除了其他功能外，还具有在专门结构中储存类胡萝卜素的能力，这种能力在不同的植物物种、组织或根据类胡萝卜素的组成而有所不同。水果是类胡萝卜素的重要来源，在成熟过程中，叶绿体分化为有色体，能够积累大量的类胡萝卜素，从而呈现出水果特有的颜色。虽然番茄红素或β-胡萝卜素可能在某些水果的有色体中以晶体形式积累，但其他积累叶黄素的水果则分化出质体小球作为增强类胡萝卜素稳定性和储存的首选系统。在水果的类胡萝卜素研究中，可视化质体的超微结构及其在成熟过程中的转化是基本目标。因此，在本章中，我们描述了一种通过透射电子显微镜（TEM）可视化和分析质体超微结构的方法，该方法专门设计并适用于水果组织。
