noun any of various small particles in the cytoplasm of the cells of plants and some animals that contain pigments, starch, oil, protein, etcSee chromoplast Word Origin for plastid C19: via German from Greek plastēs sculptor, from plassein to form

What is the main function of plastids? Plastids are organelles in the cells of photosynthetic organisms that are used to synthesize and store food. There are also plastids who store.

9 Plastid-to-Nucleus Signaling 183–197 Asa Strand, Tatjana Kleine and Joanne Chory˚ Summary 183 I. Introduction 184 II. Intracellular Communication During Chloroplast Development 184 III. Retrograde Communication Through “Plastid Signals” 185 IV. Mg-ProtoIX, a Link Between the Plastids and the Nucleus 189

Plastids are remnants of a photosynthetic organism that was engulfed by the host, although not all are now photosynthetic. Plastid genomes encode genes for rRNAs, tRNAs and between about 28 and 150 proteins. Plastids can be categorized into 4 main groups: chloroplasts, cyanelles, apicoplasts and non-photosynthetic.