The most representative evergreen shrub species growing in the low mediterranean maquis modified their leaf characteristics during the year, but the response to climate varied among the species. The reál sclerophyllous species, Quercus ilex L., Phillyrea latifolia and Pistacia lentiscus, showed a convergence in higher leaf thickness and lower net photosynthetic rate (P^) compared with Arhuíus unedo L. and Cistus incanus L. Under summer stress they maintained a substantial positive carbon balance. Pistacia was one of the most tolerant species to the drought, it maintained a substantial positive balance over a wide range in temperature. Arhutus and Cistus had relatively thin leaves with a higher succulence index and higher ihe more characteristic sclerophyllous species. The superiority of Cistus in carbon uptake over all the spacies was maintained throughout most of the year by its morphological leaf properties: low leaf thickness, high chlorophyll contents. Besides, Cistus shed most of its leaves before summer, thus reducing its evaporative surface.
Nitrogen is an essential factor for normal plant and algal development. As a component of nucleic acids, proteins, and chlorophyll (Chl) molecules, it has a crucial role in the organization of a functioning photosynthetic apparatus. Our aim was to study the effects of nitrogen starvation in cultures of the unicellular green alga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, maintained on nitrogen-free, and then on nitrogen-containing medium. During the three-week-long degreening process, considerable changes were observed in the Chl content, the ratio of Chl-protein complexes, and photosynthetic activity of the cultures as well as in the ultrastructure of single chloroplasts. The regreening process was much faster then the degradation; total greening of the cells occurred within four days. The rate of regeneration depended on the nitrogen content. At least 50% of the normal nitrogen content of Tris-Acetate-Phosphate (TAP) medium was required in the medium for the complete regreening of the cells and regeneration of chloroplasts., É. Preininger, A. Kósa, Z. S. Lőrincz, P. Nyitrai, J. Simon, B. Böddi, Á. Keresztes, I. Gyurján., and Obsahuje seznam literatury
Boron deficiency induced a dramatic inhibition in sunflower plant growth, shown by a reduction in dry mass of roots and shoots of plants grown for 10 d in nutrient solution supplied with 0.02 µM B. This low B supply facilitated the appearance of brown purple pigmentation on the plant leaves over the entire growth period. Compared to B-sufficient (BS) leaves, leakage from B-deficient (BD) leaves was 20 fold higher for potassium, 38 fold for sucrose, and 6 fold for phenolic compounds. High level of membrane peroxidation was detected by measuring peroxidase activities as well as peroxidative products in BD sunflower plants. Soluble and bound peroxidase activities measured in BD thylakoid membranes were accelerated two fold compared to those detected in BS-membranes. No detectable change in soluble peroxidase activity in roots whereas a 4 fold stimulation in bound peroxidase activity was detected. Thylakoid membranes subjected to low B supply showed enhancement in lipoxygenase activity and malondialdehyde (MDA) content in parallel with 40 and 30 % decrease of linoleic and linolenic acid contents (related to total unsaturated fatty acids). A slower rate of Hill reaction activity (40 %) and a suppressed flow of electron transfer of the whole chain (30 %) were detected in BD thylakoid membranes. This reduction was accompanied with a decline in the activity of photosystem 2 shown by a diminished rate of oxygen evolution (42 %) coupled with a quenching (27.5 %) in chlorophyll a fluorescence emission spectra at 685 nm (F685). Thus B is an important element for membrane maintenance, protection, and function by minimizing or limiting production of free oxygen radicals in thylakoid membranes of sunflower leaves.
The specific features of the structural and functional organisation of the photosynthetic apparatus (PSA) were studied in wild halophytes representing three strategies of salt tolerance: euhalophyte Salicornia perennans, crynohalophyte Limonium gmelinii, and glycohalophyte Artemisia santonica. The sodium content in aboveground parts of the plants corresponded to the strategy of salt tolerance. The photosynthetic cells of the euhalophyte were large and contained a higher number of chloroplasts than those in other species. In contrast, the number of cells per a leaf area unit was lower in S. perennans as compared to cryno- and glycohalophytes. Thereupon, the cell and chloroplast surface area per leaf area unit declined in the following sequence: A. santonica > L. gmelinii > S. perennans. However, the large cells of euhalophyte contained chloroplasts of larger sizes with 4- to 5-fold higher chlorophyll (Chl) content per chloroplast and Chl concentration in chloroplast volume unit. Also, chloroplasts of S. perennans were characterised by the higher content of glyco- and phospholipids. Qualitative composition of fatty acids (FA) in lipids isolated from the chloroplast-enriched fraction was similar in all three species; however, the index of unsaturation of FA was higher in glycohalophyte A. santonica than those in two other species. Under natural condition, PSA of all three halophytes showed high resistance to soil salinity. The results indicated tolerance of PSII to the photodamage in halophytes. The high rate of electron transport through PSII can be important to prevent oxidative damage of PSA in halophytes under strong light and hight temperature in vivo. Thus, the strategy of salt tolerance is provided by both the leaf anatomical structure and the ultrastructure of photosynthetic membranes, which is determined in particular by the specific composition of lipids., O. A. Rozentsvet, E. S. Bogdanova, L. A. Ivanova, L. A. Ivanov, G. N. Tabalenkova, I. G. Zakhozhiy, V. N. Nesterov., and Seznam literatury
The structural characteristics of the extra-membrane domains and guanidine hydrochloride-induced denaturation of photosystem 2 (PS2) core antenna complexes CP43 and CP47 were investigated using fluorescence emission and circular dichroism (CD) spectra. The extra-membrane domains of CP43 and CP47 possessed a certain degree of secondary and tertiary structure and not a complete random coil conformation. The tertiary structure and the chlorophyll (Chl) a microenvironment of CP47 were more sensitive to guanidine hydrochloride (GuHCl) than that of CP43. Changes in energy transfer from β-carotene to Chl a corresponded well to changes in the tertiary structure while their correlation with changes in the secondary structure was rather poor. Unlike most of water-soluble proteins, both CP43 and CP47 are partly resistant to denaturation induced by guanidine hydrochloride (GuHCl); the denaturation of CP43 or CP47 is not a two-state process. Those features most probably reflect their character as intrinsic membrane proteins. and Y.-G. Qu ... [et al.].
The structural reorganization of pea thylakoid systems in response to osmotic shock in a wide range of temperatures (36-70°C) was studied. At temperatures 40-46°C, the configuration of thylakoid systems changed from a flattened to a nearly round, whereas thylakoids themselves remained compressed. The percentage of thylakoids stacked into grana at 44°C decreased from 71 % in the control to 40 % in experimental samples, reaching 59 % at 48°C. At 44°C and above, thylakoid systems ceased to respond to the osmotic shock by disordering, in contrast to what happened at lower temperatures (36-43°C) and in the control, and retained the configuration inherent in thylakoid systems at these temperatures. At 50°C and above, the packing of thylakoids in grana systems changed, and thylakoids formed extended strands of pseudograna. Simultaneously, single thylakoids formed a network of anastomoses through local fusions. At temperatures of 60-70°C, thylakoid systems appeared as spherical clusters of membrane vesicles with different degree of separation.
The oxidizing side of photosystem 2 (PS2) contains a set of unique redox components including two tyrosine radicals, Tyr2 and Tyrp, and a cluster of 4 Mn atoms that are involved in the oxidation of water to molecular oxygen. The structural environment of these components is unknown; we ušed computer-assisted modelling to create a three-dimensional model for the structure around Tyr^ and Tyrj). The tyrosines are predicted to be located in hydrophobic cavities in the Dl and D2 reaction centre proteins, respectively. The cavities are situated close to the lumenal surface of the thylakoid membrane and are surrounded mainly by highly conserved amino acid residues. Both tyrosines are proposed to be hydrogen-bonded to the nearby histidine residues Hisl90 on respective protein. We tested the model by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy of Tyr^ and site-directed mutagenesis of the D2 protein in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis 6803. In two mutants, where the corresponding histidine is changed to a tyrosine or a leucine, the normál EPR spectra from Tyr^ were drastically altered to narrow structureless radical signals with g-values similar to that of Tyrp (g » 2.0050). The new spectra were assigned to Tyrp from functional experiments and the spectral modification indicated that the introduced point-mutation of His 190 (D2-Hisl89 in Synechocystis 6803) modified the environment around Tyr^ supporting the structural model. In a third mutant where Glnl65 (D2-Glnl64 in Synechocystis 6803) was exchanged to a leucine we also observed a modified EPR spectrum consistent with the predictions firom the model. AU the experimental data obtained strengthen the Computer derived model in essential aspects. We also predicted a possible location for the Mn-cluster to the loop that connects the membrane spanning helices A and B on the Dl protein. In addition the structural model suggests the presence of a metal-site, possibly a Mn site, close to Tyrz on the Dl protein. The site is proposed to be constituted of three residues on the Dl protein, Glnl65, Aspl70 and Glul89.
We studied the development of chloroplasts from etioplasts in the cotyledonary leaves of 4-d-old dark-grown cucumber (Cucumis sativus) seedlings after irradiation (20 μmol m-2 s-1). Upon irradiation, the triggering of chlorophyll (Chl) synthesis and accumulation showed a relatively short lag phase. The irradiation of etiolated seedlings initiated the synthesis of apoproteins of pigment-protein complexes. While Chl-protein 2 (CP2) was detected at 6 h after irradiation, CP1 only after 29 h. The appearance and accumulation of some of the apoproteins were monitored by Western-blotting. LHC2 apoprotein was detected after a 6 h-irradiation. The amounts of D1 protein of photosystem (PS) 2 and PsaA/B protein of PS1 were quantitated by ELISA. Further, the thylakoid membrane function during this time period in terms of PS1- and PS2-mediated electron transfer activity and intersystem electron pool size were analyzed. While PS1 activity was detected after 4 h, PS2-mediated O2 evolution was detected only after a 17 h-irradiation. Fv/Fm value of Chl a fluorescence measurements indicated that the photochemical efficiency of these leaves reached its maximum after 29 h of irradiation. The intersystem pool size of cotyledonary leaves was equivalent to that of the control cotyledonary leaves grown for 25 h under continuous irradiation. Thus etioplasts develop into fully functional chloroplasts after approximately 25 h when 4 d-dark grown cucumber seedlings are continuously moderately irradiated. The development of photosynthetic electron transport chain seems to be limited in time at the level of PS2, possibly at the donor side. and K. Bala Krishna ... [et al.].
This paper opens a series of works on Czech art-historical terminology of medieval book painting. In the logic of the system of illumination description it focuses on the definition of basic terms in comparison to foreign literature. Moreover, it presents a preliminary typology of acanth ornaments, commented in regard to the genesis and chronology of the frequence of the studied samples in European book painting.
This paper opens a series of works on Czech art-historical terminology of medieval book painting. In the logic of the system of illumination description it focuses on the definition of basic terms in comparison to foreign literature. Moreover, it presents a preliminary typology of acanth ornaments, commented in regard to the genesis and chronology of the frequence of the studied samples in European book painting.