BACKGROUND Phages infecting marine picocyanobacteria often carry a psbA gene, which encodes a homolog to the photosynthetic reaction center protein, D1. Host encoded D1 decays during phage infection in the light. Phage encoded D1 may help to maintain photosynthesis during the lytic cycle, which in turn could bolster the production of deoxynucleoside triphosphates (dNTPs) for phage genome replic...

Cyanophages (cyanobacterial viruses) are important agents of horizontal gene transfer among marine cyanobacteria, the numerically dominant photosynthetic organisms in the oceans. Some cyanophage genomes carry and express host-like photosynthesis genes, presumably to augment the host photosynthetic machinery during infection. To study the prevalence and evolutionary dynamics of this phenomenon, ...

The psbA gene is the coding locus for a polypeptide of 32 kilodaltons that is involved in electron transport through photosystem II. The 4.9 kilobasepair (kbp) EcoRI restriction endonuclease fragment EcoI from the 145 kbp Euglena gracilis chloroplast DNA was shown to encode psbA. Five transcripts of size 3.1, 2.8, 2.3, 1.8, and 1.2 kilobases were detected by hybridization of psbA probes to nitr...

This study aims to identify and authenticate selected medicinal plants commercially sold in Manila and assess the most effective DNA barcodes using three chloroplast markers (trnH-psbA, matK, rbcL) and a nuclear marker(ITS). Among the four evaluated markers, trnH-psbA was the most easily amplified followed by matK and ITS. The ITSmarker gave 100% sequencing success rate, followed by trnH-psbA a...

Scutellaria baicalensis GEORGI (Lamiaceae) is the botanical origin of the well-known traditional Chinese medicine "Huang Qin" (Radix Scutellariae). Due to overexploitation that had induced a decline in natural sources, the dried roots of its congeners, S. amoena, S. rehderiana, and S. viscidula, have been used to adulterate it in recent years. This practice may cause a series of inconsistent th...

Podoviruses that infect marine picocyanobacteria are abundant and could play a significant role on regulating host populations due to their specific phage-host relationship. Genome sequencing of cyanophages has unveiled that many marine cyanophages encode certain photosynthetic genes like psbA. It appears that psbA is only present in certain groups of cyanopodovirus isolates. In order to better...