1. The fluorescence spectra of the alga Porphyridium have been recorded as energy distribution curves for eleven different incident wave lengths of monochromatic incident light between wave lengths 405 and 546 mmicro. 2. In these spectra chlorophyll fluorescence predominates when the incident light is in the blue part of the spectrum which is strongly absorbed by chlorophyll. 3. For blue-green ...

We have used gene-specific DNA fragments as hybridization probes to quantitate the levels of transcripts encoding several phycobilisome polypeptides in the cyanobacterium Fremyella diplosiphon in response to changes in the light environment. While the levels of transcripts encoding allophycocyanin, the core linker polypeptide, and the constitutive phycocyanin subunits are similar in F. diplosip...

DNA fragments encoding a red light-inducible phycocyanin gene and a green light-inducible phycoerythrin gene have been used to investigate the effect of red and green pulses on the accumulation of phycocyanin and phycoerythrin mRNA in subsequent darkness. A red pulse promotes phycocyanin and suppresses phycoerythrin mRNA accumulation while a green pulse has an opposite effect on both transcript...

conclusions over-expression of the synthetic cpc/β protein in the bacterial system (escherichia coli bl-21) showed that e. coli can be used as a basis for further research to produce this desired protein in large quantities. results the sds-page analysis and dot blotting confirmed the production of recombinant c-pc/β in the bacterial expression system. over-expression of cpcb gene was optimized...

Nonsaturating light at 600 or 436 nanometers was used to excite specifically phycocyanin or chlorophyll a, respectively, both of which participate in light capture in photosystem II of Cyanidium caldarium. The ratio of absorption of light by phycocyanin to chlorophyll in photosystem II in this organism is >20 at 600 nanometers and </=0.2 at 436 nanometers.The distribution of the absorbed light ...

The crystal structure of R-phycocyanin from Polysiphonia urceolata (R-PC-PU) at 2.4 A is reported. The R-PC-PU crystal belongs to space group P4(3)2(1)2 with cell parameters a = 135.1 A, c = 210.0 A, and alpha = beta = gamma = 90 degrees. The structure was determined by molecular replacement. The crystallographic R-factor of the refined model is 0.189 (R(free) = 0.239). Comparison of the microe...

In this paper, phycocyanin and one component (PY-D2) in polysaccharide were obtained from Porphyra yezoensis to study for their potential anti-tumor effects. MTT proliferation assays showed that, at concentration of 500 mg/L for 72 h, PY-D2 treatment significantly inhibited the growth of four tumor cell lines, HO-8910, MCF-7, K562 and SMMC-7721, with the respective inhibition rates of 21.2%, 23...

We and other investigators have reported that bilirubin and its precursor biliverdin may have beneficial effects on diabetic vascular complications, including nephropathy, via its antioxidant effects. Here, we investigated whether phycocyanin derived from Spirulina platensis, a blue-green algae, and its chromophore phycocyanobilin, which has a chemical structure similar to that of biliverdin, p...

Phycobilisomes were isolated from wild type Gracilaria tikvahiae and a number of its genetically characterized Mendelian and non-Mendelian pigment mutants in which the principal lesions result in an increase or decrease in the accumulation of phycoerythrin. Both the size and phycoerythrin content of the phycobilisomes are proportional to the phycoerythrin content of the crude algal extracts. In...

The purpose of this study was to ascertain the effect of turbid water on a fluourometric device designed to detect phycocyanin and chlorophyll a in cyanobacteria cells in vivo. Cell densities corresponding to the Blue Green Algae Alert levels endorsed by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council and adopted by numerous water resource managers were coalesced with a range of tot...