In article <52bnto$lea at mserv1.dl.ac.uk>, G.CLARK at lshtm.ac.uk (Graham Clark) says:
>>>While some botanists like to limit the term "plastid" to only refer to
>>chloroplasts and similar plastids, in general the term means any
>>organelle with a chromosome that presumably is derived from an
>>endosymbiotic event, and this definition would include mitochondria
>>and similar organelles as well.
>>I am not a botanist and I have never heard the term plastid used in
>reference to mitochondria. The definition of plastid I know is:
>A member of a family of organelles unique to plants having their own
>small genome and enclosed by a double membrane (chloroplasts, chromoplasts,
>leucoplasts, tonoplasts, etc.)
>Taken from Alberts et al Mol Biol of the Cell
>>Graham
But then there is a botany text (Worth, Botany of Plants), that defines a
plastid simply as an "organelle in the cells of certain groups of
eukaryotes that is the site of such activities as food manufacture and
storage; plastids are bounded by a double membrane."
However, in all my enormous experience, i've never heard the word plastid
used to describe mitochondria. :)
julie beth wood
Now conveniently located in Austin!
