Oil body
| Parent |
| Plastid |
| Subordinate |
| Oil body stroma |
| Gene Ontology |
|---|
| QuickGO |
Oil bodies (internat. Often Elaioplast from ancient Greek ἔλαιον élaion "oil", "anointing oil", "olive oil" and ancient Greek πλαστός plastós "shaped") are cell organelles that only occur in liverworts . Oil bodies are a subgroup of the leukoplasts and are photosynthetically inactive because they are chlorophyll-free .
Oil bodies are surrounded by a membrane ( endoplasmic reticulum ) and contain terpenes (sesquiterpenes and monoterpenes). They occur in around 90% of liverwort species and do not occur anywhere else in the plant kingdom. The oil bodies differ greatly from species to species in terms of shape, size and color and represent an important characteristic. The sole occurrence of oil bodies in liverworts is a strong indication of the monophyletic ancestry of this group. Oil bodies are formed from proplastids and thus belong to the plastids .
The "oil bodies" found in some deciduous mosses do not have a membrane and consist of lipids that serve as reserve substances. So they are not actually oil bodies.
literature
- Jan-Peter Frahm: Biology of Mosses . Spectrum Academic Publishing House, Heidelberg and Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-8274-0164-X
- Keyword “Elaioplasts.” In: Herder-Lexikon der Biologie. Spectrum Akademischer Verlag GmbH, Heidelberg 2003. ISBN 3-8274-0354-5