Increased temperatures are a major scenario in climate change and present a threat to plant growth and agriculture. Plant growth depends on photosynthesis. To function optimally, the photosynthetic machinery at the thylakoid membrane in chloroplasts continuously adapts to changing conditions. Here, we set out to discover the most important changes arising at the lipid level under high temperatu...

Membrane preparations isolated from the photosynthetic lamellae of the cyanobacterium Plectonema boryanum generate upon illumination a transmembrane pH gradient of approximately 2 to 3 pH units (acid inside), as determined from the distribution of either fluorescent or radioactive amines (9 aminoacridine and [14C]methylamine, respectively). Using the distribution of permeant ions to measure th...

The photosynthetic membrane is the microscopic powerhouse of our biosphere. It transforms the sun’s energy into the energy of universal biological fuel, ATP and NADPH (light reactions) that is used for the synthesis of Glc from CO2 (dark reactions). Oxygenic photosynthesis, the process that enabled the explosive diversity of heterotrophic organisms on our planet, oxidizes water in order to driv...

Anabaena variabilis, a blue-green alga lacking chlorophyll b, shows an absence of the major 22 and 24 kilodalton polypeptides which are present in the photosynthetic membranes of Chlamydomonas reinhardi and higher plants. These data are consistent with other investigations which have shown that these polypeptides are associated with chlorophyll b in the chloroplasts of higher plants, and indica...

Thylakoid membranes are typical and essential features of both chloroplasts and cyanobacteria. While they are crucial for phototrophic growth of cyanobacterial cells, biogenesis of thylakoid membranes is not well understood yet. Dark-grown Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 cells contain only rudimentary thylakoid membranes but still a relatively high amount of phycobilisomes, inactive photosystem II a...

The photosynthetic responses of four alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) cultivars to 10 and 22 C air temperatures were examined and the relationship between the photosynthetic response at 10 C and the fatty acid composition of the chloroplast membranes was determined. Chilling-resistant cultivars exhibited moderate reductions in photosynthesis at 10 C, compared to 22 C, and contained a significantly ...