Chromoplast

**Discovery and Function:** Although it is not clear when the the chromoplast was discovered, a chromoplast is a plastid. Plastids were discovered in 1866 by a scientist named Ernst Haeckel, and are differentiated and classified by a simple light microscope. Chromo is the prefix meaning color, and a plast is any living substance or organelle. The basic function of the chromoplast is to provide color to any plant, fruit, or root it is in. The chromoplast synthesizes and stores red, yellow, an orange pigments, which help provide the distinct color. Chromoplasts are mostly made up of these pigments, along with few other parts. There are also ribosomes found with these plastids, and a nucleus, like most may have. The structure of the chromoplast relates to the function of it because it contains many pigments which help to provide the color to whatever it is in, which is the function.



**Where chromoplasts are found:** Only plant cells include these chromoplasts. Some of these plants may include fruits, flowers, roots, and aging leaves that the chromoplasts cause the changing colors of them. Chromoplasts are only in plant cells because plants are constantly changing colors throughout time, and plants need these color changes. Animal cells do not need these plastids because there is no need for any animal to change color as often as plants do. Having chromoplasts would only be a waste for animals.

All plant cells require chromoplasts, and only plant cells. These plastids are responsible for the red, yellow, and orange pigments, basically most colors but green. There are no chromoplasts in the human body because the human body only contains animal cells. There is no reason for animal cells to have chromoplasts because animals do not change colors the same way that plants do.
 * Which cells require large amounts of chromoplasts? **

**Does the chromoplast work with any other organelles?** Although they do not exactly work together, chromoplasts are similar to chloroplasts. There is a transition of chloroplasts to chromoplasts in plants such as a tomato. There is a breakdown of chlorophyll in the chloroplast when transitioning in the tomato, and that is what leads to the formation of the chromoplast. The chloroplasts allow fruit and plants to have their green color, but the chromoplasts are responsible for the other colors, like red. There is also good enough evidence to prove that chromoplasts come from chloroplasts.

**Analogy** Food coloring: Food The food coloring provides the color for the food. Chromoplasts: Cell The chromoplast provides the color for the cell.

In this analogy I carefully chose items that would correspond with each other. The food coloring is responsible for changing the color of the food while it is being prepared. The chromoplast is much like this in a way with the cell. The chromoplast is responsible for changing the color of the cell as the conditions are changing. The food coloring will eventually be able to change the color of the food as a whole, just like the how the chromoplasts will eventually be able to change the color of the whole fruit, or plant, once all of the cells change color.


 * Works Cited: **

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3143050/

http://www.macroevolution.net/chromoplasts.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromoplast

http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/C/chromoplast.html

https://www.shutterstock.com/search/chromoplast

https://www.thinglink.com/user/574252168454864898