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diosara
diosara
Student
High School - 12th Grade

How do primitive photosynthetic cyanobacteria relate to chloroplasts?

The endosymbiotic theory proposes that primitive photosynthetic eukaryotes arose when photosynthetic organism such as cyanobacteria began living inside of non-photosynthetic eukaryotes.

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Posted by diosara on Tuesday January 13, 2009 at 7:37 AM and tagged with cells, evolution, organelles, science.

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  1. lynn30k Teacher
    High School - 10th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    The photosynthetic cyanobacteria became the chloroplasts. The cyanobacteria had been free-living, but became incorporated into eukaryotes. They then became part of the new cells, performing a specialized function (capturing the energy of the sun) for the cell. This enabled the development of much more complicated, multi-cellular plants.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/uxl-science-encyclopedia/radioactivity

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    Posted by lynn30k on Saturday January 17, 2009 at 7:53 PM