Editing Chloroplast (section)

==== Regulation ====

In species of [[algae]] that contain a single chloroplast, regulation of chloroplast division is extremely important to ensure that each daughter cell receives a chloroplast—chloroplasts can't be made from scratch.<ref name="Alberts-2002b">{{cite book |last=Alberts |first=Bruce | name-list-style=vanc |title=Molecular biology of the cell|year=2002|publisher=Garland|location=New York [u.a.]|isbn=0-8153-4072-9|url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK26924/|edition=4.}}</ref><ref name="Glynn-2007" /> In organisms like plants, whose cells contain multiple chloroplasts, coordination is looser and less important. It is likely that chloroplast and cell division are somewhat synchronized, though the mechanisms for it are mostly unknown.<ref name="Glynn-2007" />

Light has been shown to be a requirement for chloroplast division. Chloroplasts can grow and progress through some of the constriction stages under [[Chlorophyll#Spectrophotometry|poor quality green light]], but are slow to complete division—they require exposure to bright white light to complete division. Spinach leaves grown under green light have been observed to contain many large dumbbell-shaped chloroplasts. Exposure to white light can stimulate these chloroplasts to divide and reduce the population of dumbbell-shaped chloroplasts.<ref name="Possingham-1976" /><ref name="Hashimoto-1989" />