chloroplast intermembrane space

GO:0031972 · Membrane organelle · Subcellular region · Proposed

The region between the inner and outer lipid bilayers of a chloroplast envelope. [GO:0031972]

Synonyms: chloroplastic intermembrane space

Part of: chloroplast envelope (GO:0009941)

Xrefs: uniprot.location:SL-0052 — Chloroplast intermembrane space

Taxonomic distribution

NCBITaxon:33090 Viridiplantae — COMMON: Photosynthetic green algae and land plants carry chloroplast envelopes whose inner and outer membranes delimit an intermembrane space. [DOI:10.1098/rstb.2009.0103]
NCBITaxon:3055 Chlamydomonas reinhardtii — COMMON: Chlamydomonas reinhardtii has a chloroplast envelope whose TOC-TIC import supercomplex spans the outer and inner membranes across the intermembrane space. [DOI:10.1016/j.cell.2022.10.030]

NCBITaxon:3055 Chlamydomonas reinhardtii — Green-algal model used for structural analysis of a TOC-TIC supercomplex that spans the chloroplast outer and inner envelope membranes. [DOI:10.1016/j.cell.2022.10.030]

The chloroplast intermembrane space lies between the inner and outer chloroplast envelope membranes.

Subject	Predicate	Object	Evidence
chloroplast outer membrane	delimits	chloroplast intermembrane space	`GO:0031972` GO:0031972 defines this space as the region between the inner and outer lipid bilayers of a chloroplast envelope. `GO:0009707` GO:0009707 defines the chloroplast outer membrane as the outer envelope bilayer.
chloroplast inner membrane	delimits	chloroplast intermembrane space	`GO:0031972` GO:0031972 defines this space as the region between the inner and outer lipid bilayers of a chloroplast envelope. `uniprot.location:SL-0051` — Chloroplast inner membrane UniProt SL-0051 describes the chloroplast inner membrane as separating the chloroplast stroma from the intermembrane space.

GO:0031972 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for chloroplast intermembrane space.
GO:0009529 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for plastid intermembrane space.
GO:0009941 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for the chloroplast envelope that contains this intermembrane space.
GO:0009707 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for the outer chloroplast membrane that delimits this space.
GO:0009706 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for the inner chloroplast membrane that delimits this space.
uniprot.location:SL-0052 — Chloroplast intermembrane space UniProt Subcellular Location entry SL-0052 maps Chloroplast intermembrane space to GO:0031972, lists it in the Plastid, chloroplast intermembrane space hierarchy, and names Chloroplast envelope as the host parent.
uniprot.location:SL-0051 — Chloroplast inner membrane UniProt Subcellular Location entry SL-0051 maps Chloroplast inner membrane to GO:0009706 and describes it as separating the chloroplast stroma from the intermembrane space.
DOI:10.1098/rstb.2009.0103 Keeling 2010, The endosymbiotic origin, diversification and fate of plastids, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B.
DOI:10.1016/j.cell.2022.10.030 Jin et al. 2022, Structure of a TOC-TIC supercomplex spanning two chloroplast envelope membranes, Cell.

2026-09-13T03:34:37Z codex · CREATED_RECORD — Scaffolded by scripts/new_record.py
2026-09-13T03:35:07Z codex · EXPANDED_RECORD — Added the UniProt SL-0052 xref, plastid intermembrane-space parentage, chloroplast-envelope parthood, Viridiplantae and Chlamydomonas scope, and a nonmechanistic envelope topology graph.
2026-09-13T03:42:57Z codex · ADDRESS_REVIEW — Resolved #746 by clarifying the SL-0052 evidence note to separate plastid intermembrane-space hierarchy from the chloroplast envelope host parent.