The highly molecular weight melanin pigments which are widespread in living organisms are usually formed due to the oxidation and polymerization of phenolic compounds into eumelanin, pheomelanin and neuromelanin. Almost of these pigments are stable, insoluble and biochemical substance resistance. They have a strong ability to absorb the ultraviolet radiation and scattering the light. There prop...

The seeds of most higher plants contain relatively small quantities of carotenoid pigments. Upon germination and early seedling growth in the absence of light, more carotenoids are synthesized. Both in seeds (4) and in dark-grown seedlings (3, 14,2), the carotenoid fraction has been found to consist principally of xanthophylls, with carotenes being present in much smaller amounts. The biosynthe...

Pigments that are currently available in the market usually come from synthetic sources, or, if natural, often need mordants to bind to the target substrate. Recent research on the fungal pigment extracts from Scytalidium cuboideum, Scytalidium ganodermophthorum, Chlorociboria aeruginosa, and Chlorociboria aeruginascens have been shown to successfully dye materials, like wood, bamboo, and texti...

The honeybee (Apis mellifera) visual system contains three classes of retinal photoreceptor cells that are maximally sensitive to light at 440 nm (blue), 350 nm (ultraviolet), and 540 nm (green). We performed a PCR-based screen to identify the genes encoding the Apis blue- and ultraviolet (UV)-sensitive opsins. We obtained cDNAs that encode proteins having a high degree of sequence and structur...

ALLEN, D. M., W. N. MCFARLAND, F. W. MUNZ, and H. A. Pos-roN. 1973. Changes in the visual pigments of trout. Can. J. Zool. 51: 901-914. The proportions of two visual pigments (rhodopsin and porphyropsin) were examined in four species of trout under experimental and natural conditions. Brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis), rainbow trout (Santo gairdneri), and brown trout (Salmo truita) have diffe...

Ultraviolet (UV) reception is useful for such basic behaviors as mate choice, foraging, predator avoidance, communication, and navigation, whereas violet reception improves visual resolution and subtle contrast detection. UV and violet reception are mediated by the short wavelength-sensitive (SWS1) pigments that absorb light maximally (λmax) at ~360 nm and ~395 to 440 nm, respectively. Because ...

Melatonin plays an important role in tolerance to multiple stresses in plants. Recent studies have shown that melatonin relieves photoinhibition in plants under cold stress; however, the mechanisms are not fully understood. Non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) is a key process thermally dissipating excess light energy that plants employ as a protective mechanism to prevent the over reduction of ph...

A new form of chlorophyll c has been isolated from the pyrmnesiophyte Pavlova gyrans Butcher. This pigment is spectrally similar to chlorophyll c(2), but all the absorption maxima (454, 583, and 630 nm in diethyl ether) are shifted 4 to 6 nanometers to longer wavelengths. The new pigment can be separated from other chlorophyll c-type pigments by reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatogr...

The steady state absorption and fluorescence spectroscopic properties of the xanthophylls, violaxanthin, zeaxanthin, and lutein, and the efficiencies of singlet energy transfer from the individual xanthophylls to chlorophyll have been investigated in recombinant CP26 protein overexpressed in Escherichia coli and then refolded in vitro with purified pigments. Also, the effect of the different xa...