Towards the fabrication of biohybrid silk fibroin materials: Entrapment and preservation of chloroplast organelles in silk fibroin films

Chloroplasts extracted from spinach leaves were entrapped in B. mori silk fibroin films to investigate the maintenance of their photosynthetic activity in a dry environment. Chloroplast stability was studied under various storage conditions (different temperature and light cycles) using electron microscopy, spectroscopic analysis and measuring of their photosynthetic activity (i.e. oxygen production). When compared to other environments previously investigated, silk fibroin films enhanced the preservation of the chloroplasts' photosynthetic activity.