The transition of the physical phase of lipids in membrane fragments of a blue-green alga Anacystis nidulans was studied by a spin labeling technique. The maximum hyperfine splitting of the electron spin resonance spectrum of the N-oxyl-4', 4'-dimethyloxazolidine derivative of 5-ketostearic acid plotted against the reciprocal of the absolute temperature gave a discontinuity point that was chara...

Heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are often cocontaminants in industrialized environments, yet little is known about either the extent or mechanisms of their cotoxicity. To address this shortfall, the combined effects of an oxygenated PAH, 1,2-dihydroxyanthraquinone (1,2-dhATQ), and a heavy metal, Cu2+, on photosynthesis and growth of the duckweed (Lemna gibba) were evalu...

Oxygenic photosynthesis in cyanobacteria, algae, and plants requires photosystem II (PSII) to extract electrons from H(2)O and depends on photosystem I (PSI) to reduce NADP(+). Here we demonstrate that mixotrophically-grown mutants of the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 that lack PSI (ΔPSI) are capable of net light-induced O(2) evolution in vivo. The net light-induced O(2) evolution r...

Acute toxicity of excess Cu on the photosynthetic performance of Chlorella pyrenoidosa was examined by using chlorophyll a fluorescence transients and JIP-test after exposure to elevated Cu concentrations for a short time period. High Cu concentration resulted in a significant suppression in photosynthesis and respiration. The absorption flux (ABS/RC) per PSII reaction center increased with inc...

The present study was aimed to assess salt tolerance of some newly developed and candidate cultivars of wheat using gas exchange and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters. Ten wheat cultivars including five newly developed (S-24, Saher2006, Fsd-2008, Lasani and Inqlab-91) and five candidate (P.B-18, M.P-65, S.H-20, AARI-10 and G.A-20) were grown in sand culture. Salt stress (150 mM NaCl in Hoagla...

Experimental work on the control of photosystem II in the photosynthetic apparatus of higher plants, mosses and lichens is reviewed on a background of current literature. Transmembrane proton transport during photoassimilatory and photorespiratory electron flows is considered insufficient for producing the intrathylakoid acidification necessary for control of photosystem II activity under exces...

We report the first lateral diffusion measurements of redox components in normal-sized, matrix-containing, intact mitoplasts (inner membrane-matrix particles). The diffusion measurements were obtained by submicron beam fluorescence recovery after photobleaching measurements of individual, intact, rat liver mitoplasts bathed in different osmolarity media to control the matrix density and the ext...

PURPOSE The authors describe a detailed Monte Carlo (MC) method for the coupled transport of ionizing particles and charge carriers in amorphous selenium (a-Se) semiconductor x-ray detectors, and model the effect of statistical variations on the detected signal. METHODS A detailed transport code was developed for modeling the signal formation process in semiconductor x-ray detectors. The char...

Copper (Cu) is an essential trace element with important roles as a cofactor in many plant functions, including photosynthesis. However, free Cu ions can cause toxicity, necessitating precise Cu delivery systems. Relatively little is known about Cu transport in plant cells, and no components of the Cu transport machinery in chloroplasts have been identified previously. Cu transport into chlorop...

Chloramphenicol (CAP) is an inhibitor of protein synthesis, which is frequently used to decouple photodamage and protein synthesis dependent repair of Photosystem II during the process of photoinhibition. It has been reported earlier that CAP is able to mediate superoxide production by transferring electrons from the acceptor side of Photosystem I to oxygen. Here we investigated the interaction...