Search results for "Chlorophyll"
showing 10 items of 453 documents
Pigment binding of photosystem I light-harvesting proteins.
2002
Light-harvesting complexes (LHC) of higher plants are composed of at least 10 different proteins. Despite their pronounced amino acid sequence homology, the LHC of photosystem II show differences in pigment binding that are interpreted in terms of partly different functions. By contrast, there is only scarce knowledge about the pigment composition of LHC of photosystem I, and consequently no concept of potentially different functions of the various LHCI exists. For better insight into this issue, we isolated native LHCI-730 and LHCI-680. Pigment analyses revealed that LHCI-730 binds more chlorophyll and violaxanthin than LHCI-680. For the first time all LHCI complexes are now available in t…
Excitonic Energy Level Structure and Pigment−Protein Interactions in the Recombinant Water-Soluble Chlorophyll Protein. I. Difference Fluorescence Li…
2011
Difference fluorescence line-narrowing spectroscopy at 4.5 K was employed to investigate electron-phonon and electron-vibrational coupling strengths of the lower exciton level of water-soluble chlorophyll-binding protein (WSCP) from cauliflower reconstituted with chlorophyll a or chlorophyll b, respectively. The electron-phonon coupling is found to be moderate with integral Huang-Rhys factors S in the order of 0.81-0.85. A weak dependence of S on excitation wavelength within the inhomogeneously broadened fluorescence origin band is attributed to a sizable contribution of nonresonant excitation that varies with excitation wavelength. The strongly asymmetric and highly structured one-phonon p…
Pigment Binding, Fluorescence Properties, and Oligomerization Behavior of Lhca5, a Novel Light-harvesting Protein
2005
A new potential light-harvesting protein, named Lhca5, was recently detected in higher plants. Because of the low amount of Lhca5 in thylakoid membranes, the isolation of a native Lhca5 pigment-protein complex has not been achieved to date. Therefore, we used in vitro reconstitution to analyze whether Lhca5 binds pigments and is actually an additional light-harvesting protein. By this approach we could demonstrate that Lhca5 binds pigments in a unique stoichiometry. Analyses of pigment requirements for light-harvesting complex formation by Lhca5 revealed that chlorophyll b is the only indispensable pigment. Fluorescence measurements showed that ligated chlorophylls and carotenoids are arran…
Decreasing the chlorophyll a/b ratio in reconstituted LHCII: Structural and functional consequences
1999
Trimeric (bT) and monomeric (bM) light-harvesting complex II (LHCII) with a chlorophyll a/b ratio of 0.03 were reconstituted from the apoprotein overexpressed in Escherichia coli. Chlorophyll/xanthophyll and chlorophyll/protein ratios of bT complexes and 'native' LHCII are rather similar, namely, 0.28 vs 0. 27 and 10.5 +/- 1.5 vs 12, respectively, indicating the replacement of most chlorophyll a molecules with chlorophyll b, leaving one chlorophyll a per trimeric complex. The LD spectrum of the bT complexes strongly suggests that the chlorophyll b molecules adopt orientations similar to those of the chlorophylls a that they replace. The circular dichroism (CD) spectra of bM and bT complexes…
Evaluation of Sentinel-2 Red-Edge Bands for Empirical Estimation of Green LAI and Chlorophyll Content
2011
ESA’s upcoming satellite Sentinel-2 will provide Earth images of high spatial, spectral and temporal resolution and aims to ensure continuity for Landsat and SPOT observations. In comparison to the latter sensors, Sentinel-2 incorporates three new spectral bands in the red-edge region, which are centered at 705, 740 and 783 nm. This study addresses the importance of these new bands for the retrieval and monitoring of two important biophysical parameters: green leaf area index (LAI) and chlorophyll content (Ch). With data from several ESA field campaigns over agricultural sites (SPARC, AgriSAR, CEFLES2) we have evaluated the efficacy of two empirical methods that specifically make use of the…
Exchange of Pigment-Binding Amino Acids in Light-Harvesting Chlorophyll a/b Protein
1999
Four amino acids in the major light-harvesting chlorophyll (Chl) a/b complex (LHCII) that are thought to coordinate Chl molecules have been exchanged with amino acids that presumably cannot bind Chl. Amino acids H68, Q131, Q197, and H212 are positioned in helixes B, C, A, and D, respectively, and, according to the LHCII crystal structure [Kühlbrandt, W., et al. (1994) Nature 367, 614-621], coordinate the Chl molecules named a(5), b(6), a(3), and b(3). Moreover, a double mutant was analyzed carrying exchanges at positions E65 and H68, presumably affecting Chls a(4) and a(5). All mutant proteins could be reconstituted in vitro with pigments, although the thermal stability of the resulting mut…
Inactivation of a plastid evolutionary conserved gene affects PSII electron transport, life span and fitness of tobacco plants
2007
Chloroplasts contain a plastoquinone-NADH-oxidoreductase (Ndh) complex involved in protection against stress and the maintenance of cyclic electron flow. Inactivation of the Ndh complex delays the development of leaf senescence symptoms. Chlorophyll a fluorescence measurements, blue native gel electrophoresis, immunodetection and other techniques were employed to study tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) Ndh-defective mutants (DeltandhF). The DeltandhF mutants compared with wild-type plants presented: (i) higher photosystem II : photosystem I (PSII : PSI) ratios; (ii) similar or higher levels of ascorbate, carotenoids, thylakoid peroxidase and superoxide dismutase, yield (Phi(PSII)) and maximal pho…
Calcium signatures and signaling in cytosol and organelles of tobacco cells induced by plant defense elicitors
2011
Calcium signatures induced by two elicitors of plant defense reactions, namely cryptogein and oligogalacturonides, were monitored at the subcellular level, using apoaequorin-transformed Nicotiana tabacum var Xanthi cells, in which the apoaequorin calcium sensor was targeted either to cytosol, mitochondria or chloroplasts. Our study showed that both elicitors induced specific Ca2+ signatures in each compartment, with the most striking difference relying on duration. Common properties also emerged from the analysis of Ca2+ signatures: both elicitors induced a biphasic cytosolic [Ca2+] elevation together with a single mitochondrial [Ca2+] elevation concomitant with the first cytosolic [Ca2+] p…
The negatively charged amino acids in the lumenal loop influence the pigment binding and conformation of the major light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b c…
2008
AbstractThe major chlorophyll (Chl) a/b complexes of photosystem II (LHCIIb), in addition to their primary light-harvesting function, play key roles in the organization of the granal ultrastructure of the thylakoid membranes and in various regulatory processes. These functions depend on the structural stability and flexibility of the complexes. The lumenal side of LHCIIb is exposed to broadly variable pH environments, due to the build-up and decay of the pH gradient during photosynthesis. Therefore, the negatively charged amino acids in the lumenal loop might be of paramount importance for adjusting the structure and functions of LHCIIb. In order to clarify the structural roles of these res…
Responses of citrus plants to ozone: leaf biochemistry, antioxidant mechanisms and lipid peroxidation.
2006
The effects of ozone upon 3-year-old trees of Clementina mandarin (Citrus clementina Hort. ex Tan.) cv. Marisol exposed for 12 months to ambient (10 nl l(-1)) and high (30 and 65 nl l(-1)) concentrations in open top chambers (OTCs) were investigated. The data showed that in leaves, ozone reduced total chlorophylls, carotenoid and carbohydrate concentration. and increased 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) content and ethylene production. In treated plants, the ascorbate leaf pool was decreased, while lipid peroxidation and Solute leakaGe were significantly higher than in ozone-free controls. The data indicated that ozone triggered protective mechanisms against oxidative stress in c…