ABSTRACT
The initial fixation of CO2 in plants occurs within green plastids (chloroplasts) found not only in leaves but also in a range of other tissues where their precise function has yet to be established. This chapter will discuss the carbohydrate metabolism of chloroplasts; the first part will focus on photosynthetic CO2 fixation in leaves and the second part will discuss our current understanding of the carbohydrate metabolism of green plastids found in other tissues. This chapter is not intended to be a comprehensive review of the literature, rather a survey of recent developments in this field. Readers are referred to several excellent reviews that have appeared in the literature and which we, the authors, have used as the background of this work (Leegood, 1996; Macdonald and Buchanan, 1990; Walker and Edwards, 1983).
