• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.14 no.3
• /
• pp.442-449
• /
• 2004

Improving the light utilization efficiency of photosynthetic cells in photobioreactors (PBRs) is a major topic in algal biotechnology. Accordingly, in the current study we investigated the effect and suitability of photosynthetic pigment reduction for improving light utilization efficiency. The light-harvesting complex II (LH-II) genes of Rhodobacter sphaeroides were removed to construct a mutant strain with less pigment content. The mutant strain exhibited a slower growth rate than the wild-type under a low light intensity, while the mutant grew faster under a high light intensity. In addition, the specific absorption coefficient was lower in the mutant due to its reduced pigment content, thus it seemed that light penetrated deeper into its culture broth. However, the distance (light penetration depth) from the surface of the PBR to the compensation point did not increase, due to an increase in the compensation irradiance of the mutant strain. Experimental data showed that a reduced photosynthetic pigment content, which lessened the photoinhibition under high-intensity light, helped the volumetric productivity of photosynthetic microorganisms.

• Journal of Plant Biology
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.91-99
• /
• 1983

The formation of chlorophyll-protein complexes (CP-complexes) during the greening of rape cotyledons (Brassica napus cv. Yongdang) was investigated by the SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The total chlorophyll content and Chl a/b ratio were also determined. In addition, the effects of dark treatment on the CP-complex patterns during greening have been examined with respect to their photosynthetic electron transport activity. Greening has brought about the increasein total chlorophyll content and the decrease in Chl a/b ratio, but there have been no changes in Chl a/b ratio after 24 hrs of greening. The light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b-protein complex (LHCP-complex0 was predominant during the initial greening period. Thereafter, the amout of chlorophyll a-protein complex (CP I-complex) was gradually increased. Twenty-four-hr dark treatment immediately after illumination for 6 hrs and 12 hrs resulted in the increase of the Chl a/b ration and the CP I complex, otherwise the decrease of the LHCP-complex. The LHCP/CP I ratio was gradually decreased with further greening, and appeared no change after 48 hrs illumination. The investigation of the photosynthetic electron transport activity indicated that photosystem (PS) II activity (H2Olongrightarrowp-PD*＋FeCy**) did not change, but the activity of PS I was increased suddenly due to the dark treatment. The data suggests that the increase of CP I-complex may result in that of P-700, that is, the increase of PS I activity.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.35 no.3
• /
• pp.858-864
• /
• 2014

Recently, many researches have shown that even photosynthetic light-harvesting pigment-protein complexes can have quantum coherence in their excitonic energy transfer at cryogenic and physiological temperatures. Because the protein supplies such noisy environment around pigments that conventional wisdom expects very short lived quantum coherence, elucidating the mechanism and searching for an applicability of the coherence have become an interesting topic in both experiment and theory. We have previously studied the quantum coherence of a phycocyanin 645 complex in a marine algae harvesting light system, using Poisson mapping bracket equation (PBME). PBME is one of the applicable methods for solving quantum-classical Liouville equation, for following the dynamics of such pigment-protein complexes. However, it may suffer from many defects mostly from mapping quantum degrees of freedom into classical ones. To make improvements against such defects, benchmarking targets with more accurately described dynamics is highly needed. Here, we fall back to reduced hierarchical equation of motion (HEOM), for such a purpose. Even though HEOM is known to applicable only to simplified system that is coupled to a set of harmonic oscillators, it can provide ultimate accuracy within the regime of quantum-classical description, thus providing perfect benchmark targets for certain systems. We compare the evolution of the density matrix of pigment excited states by HEOM against the PBME results at physiological temperature, and observe more sophisticated changes of density matrix elements from HEOM. In PBME, the population of states with intermediate energies display only monotonically increasing behaviors. Most importantly, PBME suffers a serious issue of wrong population in the long time limit, likely generated by the zero-point energy leaking problem. Future prospects for developments are briefly discussed as a concluding remark.

• Molecules and Cells
• /
• v.40 no.10
• /
• pp.773-786
• /
• 2017

The loss of green coloration via chlorophyll (Chl) degradation typically occurs during leaf senescence. To date, many Chl catabolic enzymes have been identified and shown to interact with light harvesting complex II to form a Chl degradation complex in senescing chloroplasts; this complex might metabolically channel phototoxic Chl catabolic intermediates to prevent oxidative damage to cells. The Chl catabolic enzyme 7-hydroxymethyl Chl a reductase (HCAR) converts 7-hydroxymethyl Chl a (7-HMC a) to Chl a. The rice (Oryza sativa) genome contains a single HCAR homolog (OsHCAR), but its exact role remains unknown. Here, we show that an oshcar knockout mutant exhibits persistent green leaves during both dark-induced and natural senescence, and accumulates 7-HMC a and pheophorbide a (Pheo a) in green leaf blades. Interestingly, both rice and Arabidopsis hcar mutants exhibit severe cell death at the vegetative stage; this cell death largely occurs in a light intensity-dependent manner. In addition, 7-HMC a treatment led to the generation of singlet oxygen ($^1O_2$) in Arabidopsis and rice protoplasts in the light. Under herbicide-induced oxidative stress conditions, leaf necrosis was more severe in hcar plants than in wild type, and HCAR-overexpressing plants were more tolerant to reactive oxygen species than wild type. Therefore, in addition to functioning in the conversion of 7-HMC a to Chl a in senescent leaves, HCAR may play a critical role in protecting plants from high light-induced damage by preventing the accumulation of 7-HMC a and Pheo a in developing and mature leaves at the vegetative stage.

• Journal of Plant Biology
• /
• v.39 no.4
• /
• pp.301-307
• /
• 1996

The disassembly of Chl-protein complexes during dark-induced senescence (DIS) was investigated using detached third and fourthleaves of 21$\pm$1 day-old Arabidopsis thaliana. Although Chl content decreased linearly after 1 d, a significant decrease of photochemical effeciency (Fv/Fm) was observed after 2 d. In experiments using native green gel electrophoresis of Chl-protein complexes combined with additional two-dimensional SDS-PAGE analysis, we could observe the degradation of both photosystems after 2 d. Although light-harvesting complex(LHC) for PSI (LHCI) was degraded first in PSI complex, small PSII apoproteins including CP47/CP43 and D1/D2 apoproteins were degraded first in PSII complexes. LHC for PSII (LHCII) trimers were stable until 4 d. The level of LHCII monomers was increased until 3 and decreased thereafter, resulting in the increase of free pigments. These results suggest that the disassembly process of PSI is different from that of PSII.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.15 no.5
• /
• pp.1094-1099
• /
• 2005

Photosynthetic dinoflagellates contain a water-soluble, light-harvesting antenna called the peridinin-chlorophyll-protein (PCP) complex, which has an apoprotein with no sequence similarity to other known proteins. There are two forms of PCP apoproteins; the 15-kDa short form and the 32- to 35­kDa long form. The present study describes the PCP protein and its cDNA from Alexandrium tamarense. A cDNA library was constructed from mRNA isolated from A. tamarense. The complete PCP cDNA was generated by reverse-transcription coupled to polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), together with rapid-amplification of cDNA ends (RACE). The A. tamarense PCP cDNA encoded a 55-amino acid signal peptide and a 313-amino acid mature protein with a calculated mass of 32 kDa, which corresponded to that of the long form of PCP. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the sequence of A. tamarense PCP did not cluster with the short-form PCPs, to which it was only about $55\%$ identical, but which were $79-83\%$ identical to other long-form PCPs. The deduced amino acid sequence of A. tamarense PCP contains an internal duplication, which suggests the possibility that long-form PCPs arose by gene duplication or by the fusion of genes encoding the short form. The abundance of PCP mRNA changed substantially in response to different light conditions, indicating the possible existence of a photo-acclimation response in A. tamarense.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.373-377
• /
• 2007

No phosphatidylcholine (PC) was detected in the membrane of Rhodobacter sphaeroides pmtA mutant (PmtAl) lacking phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) N-methyltransferase, whereas PE in the mutant was increased up to the mole % comparable to the combined level of PE and PC of wild type. Neither the fatty acid composition nor the fluidity of membrane was altered by pmtA mutation. Consistently, aerobic and photoheterotrophic growth of PmtAl were not different from wild type. However, PmtAl showed an extended lag phase (15 h) after the growth transition from aerobic to photoheterotrophic conditions, indicating the PC requirement for the efficient formation of intracytoplasmic membrane (ICM). Interestingly, the B800-850 complex of PmtAl was decreased more than twofold in comparison with wild type, whereas the level of the B875 complex comprising the fixed photosynthetic unit was not changed. Since puc expression is not affected by pmtA mutation, PC appears to be required for the proper formation of the B800-850 complex in the ICM of R. sphaeroides.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
• /
• v.22 no.5
• /
• pp.364-368
• /
• 2013

Vibrational energy harvester based on piezoelectricity has been expected to be the dominant energy harvesting technology due to the advantages of high conversion efficiency, light weight and small size, night operation, etc. Its commercialization is just around the corner but the integration with power management electronics should be solved in advance. In this paper, therefore, fully-integrated design environment for piezoelectric energy harvesting systems is presented to assist co-design with the power management electronics. The proposed design environment is capable of analyzing the energy harvester including the package-induced damping effects and simulating the device and its power management electronics simultaneously. When the developed design environment was applied to the fabricated device, the simulated resonant frequency matched well with the experimental result with a difference of 2.97% only. Also, the complex transient response was completed in short simulation time of 3,001 seconds including the displacement distribution over the device geometry. Furthermore, a full-bridge power management circuit was modeled and simulated with the energy harvester simultaneously. Therefore the proposed, fully-integrated design environment is accurate and fast enough for the contribution on successful commercialization of piezoelectric energy harvester.

• Journal of Photoscience
• /
• v.9 no.2
• /
• pp.350-352
• /
• 2002

We examined the bacteriochlorophyill/bacteriopheophytin ratios in several species of purple bacteria containing only LHI. The pigment ratios depended greatly on species. Further, Rhodospirillum rubrum showed wide variation when grown under different light intensity, and Rhodobium marinum showed significant variation from culture to culture even under the same light conditions. The protein ratios of a/RC and $\beta$/RC estimated by SDS-PAGE of chromatophores of Rsp. rubrum and Rbi. marinum exhibited the ratio of $\beta$/$\alpha$ > 1. These findings gave us the novel idea that there are two types of LHl; one is a C-shaped open antenna composed by $\alpha$$\beta$ units surrounding a RC, and another is a small closed ring antenna composed by $\alpha$$\beta$ units located peripherally in a variable ratio to the core complex like LH2.

• BMB Reports
• /
• v.34 no.6
• /
• pp.496-501
• /
• 2001

Lincomycin, an inhibitor of plastid protein synthesis, was found to block the synthesis of apoprotein P700 with a molecular mass of 72 kDa and the assembly of the Chl a-protein of PS I. Synthesis of the polypeptides of 48, 43.5, and 32 kDa of the PS II complex is also suppressed. This process is accompanied by the disappearance of the PS Two reaction center Chl a at 683 nm, and of the PS One reaction center Chl a at 690, 696, and 705 nm on the fourth derivative of the absorption spectra at 77K. Lincomycin does not affect the synthesis of LHC subunits. It increases the content of the two main Chl forms of LHC at 648 nm (Chl b) and 676 nm (Chl a). The low-temperature fluorescence ratio F736/F685 is also increased. However, the effect of cycloheximide (an inhibitor of cytoplasmic protein synthesis) leads to the reduction of polypeptides of the light-harvesting Chl a/b-protein complex in the range of 29.5-22 kDa. Under these conditions, the relative amount of Chl b and the F736/ F685 fluorescence ratio decrease significantly. This is obviously the result of blocking the LHC I and LHC II synthesis. At the same time rifampicin and actinomycin D (inhibitors which block transcription in chloroplast and nuclear genome, respectively) inessentially affect the characteristics of these complexes.