Quantitative changes in foliar chemistry in response to UV-B radiation are frequently reported but less is known about the qualitative changes in putative UV-screening compounds. It has also not been conclusively shown whether qualitative differences in screening compounds or differences in localization patterns influence the sensitivity of plants to damage from UV-B radiation and there is some...

Complex changes to UV radiation at the Earth's surface are occurring concurrently with ocean warming. Despite few empirical tests, jellyfish are hypothesised to be increasing in some parts of the world because they are robust to environmental stressors. Here we examine the effects of UV-B and ocean warming projections on zooxanthellate jellyfish polyps. We exposed Cassiopea sp. polyps to three ...

Ultraviolet B radiation (UV-B, 290-315 nm) can cause damage and induce photomorphogenic responses in plants. The mechanisms that mediate the photomorphogenic effects of UV-B are unclear. In etiolated Arabidopsis seedlings, a daily exposure to 2.5 h of UV-B enhanced the cotyledon opening response induced by a subsequent red light (R) pulse. An R pulse alone, 2.5 h of UV-B terminated with a far-r...

This paper provides an overview of existing literature on the ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation effects on field crops. Earlier reviews on field crop responses to UV-B considered few physiological processes or crops. For this review, we easily located about 129 studies on 35 crop species published since 1975. Here, we report the effects of UV-B radiation on visual symptoms, leaf ultrastructure and...

The UV-B inducible ARIADNE12 (ARI12) gene of Arabidopsis thaliana is a member of the RING-between-RING (RBR) family of E3 ubiquitin ligases for which a novel ubiquitination mechanism was identified in mammalian homologs. This RING-HECT hybrid mechanism needs a conserved cysteine which is replaced by serine in ARI12 and might affect the E3 ubiquitin ligase activity. We have shown that under phot...

Ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation present in sunlight is an important trigger of photomorphogenic acclimation and stress responses in sessile land plants. Although numerous moss species grow in unshaded habitats, our understanding of their UV-B responses is very limited. The genome of the model moss Physcomitrella patens, which grows in sun-exposed open areas, encodes signaling and metabolic compo...

Depletion of stratospheric ozone over the Antarctic has been re-occurring yearly since 1974, leading to enhanced UV-B radiation. Arctic ozone depletion has been observed since 1990. Ozone recovery has been predicted by 2050, but no signs of recovery occur. Here we review responses of polar plants to experimentally varied UV-B through supplementation or exclusion. In supplementation studies comp...

We here examined whether exposure of mice to UV-B affected their susceptibility to the murine malaria parasite Plasmodium chabaudi. When BALB/c mice with depilated skin were irradiated with UV-B and subsequently infected with the parasite, 80 to 100% of the UV-B-irradiated mice died within 12 days of infection with a sublethal dose. In addition, UV-B irradiation of C57BL/10 (B-10) mice, which a...

The effect of ultraviolet B (UV-B) radiation on the thermal sensitivity of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) was studied using UV-B-sensitive cv Poinsett 76 and UV-B-resistant cv Ashley grown under control and elevated (300 mW m-2) UV-B radiation levels. Using both cotyledon and leaf discs, the ability of the tissue to reduce triphenyl tetrazolium chloride (TTC) was determined after treatment at 50...

Ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation can have wide-ranging impacts on plants. UV-B exposure can decrease the rate of photosynthesis, alter pigment concentrations, and damage DNA, proteins, and lipids; however, not all species are equally sensitive. Lemna minor and Spirodela polyrhiza, two sympatric aquatic plants, were exposed to 5 or 11 days of artificial UV-B radiation for 6 hours per day, and moni...