Which Organelle is Known as the Kitchen of the Cells?

Q. Which organelle is known as the kitchen of the cells?

Answer: Plastids are known as the kitchen of cells. 

The plastids are responsible for producing and storing food for themselves in the form of starch or oil. They also produce chemical defences, such as some carotenoids, which provide plants with distinctive colours. Plastids are also very important to photosynthesis because they store sugars in a process known as starch synthesis, which is then broken down during dark periods to release glucose that powers cellular respiration.

Plastids are the double- membraned organelles present in the cell membrane and contain the pigments of chloroplasts. The plastids are large in size and have the shape of a double-layered sac. The inner layer consists of small grana or sacs containing a starch grain. These grains are surrounded by a cell membrane and have a double-layered wall. The outer layer has many stacks of thylakoids or membranes present in the sacs. These thylakoids are arranged in ribbons running vertically to the starch grains.

The Granum or sac is the functional unit of the chloroplast. The chloroplast engulfs a small vesicle called thylakoid that contains an internal membrane system known as thylakoid membrane. It is a double-layered system where phospholipids form the inner layer and proteins form the outer layer.The size of Granum is about 1-2 micrometres with a diameter of about 5-10 micrometres.