• Journal of Photoscience
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.47-52
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• 1994

Effects of HgCl$_2$-treatment on electron transport, chlorophyll a fluorescence and its quenching were studied using isolated barley (Hordeum vulgare L. cv. Albori) chloroplasts. Depending on the concentration of HgCI$_2$, photosynthetic oxygen-evolving activities of photosystem II (PS II) were greatly inhibited, whereas those of photosystem I (PS I) were slightly decreased. The inhibitory effects of HgCl$_2$ on the oxygen-evolving activity was partially restored by the addition of hydroxyamine, suggesting the primary inhibition site by HgCl$_2$2-treatment is close to the oxidizing site of PS tl associated with water-splitting complex. Addition of 50 $\mu$M HgCI$_2$ decreased both photochemical and nonphotochemical quenching of chlorophyll fluorescence. Especially, energy dependent quenching (qE) was completely disappeared by HgCl$_2$-treatment as observed by NH$_4$CI treatment. In the presence of HgCI$_2$, F'o level during illumination was also increased. These results suggest that pH gradient across thylakoid membrane can not be formed in the presence of 0 $\mu$M HgCl$_2$. In addition, antenna pigment composition might be altered by HgCl$_2$-treatment.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.12
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• pp.1947-1953
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• 2006

There have been a number of studies of methods for recycling animal wastewater to provide new bioresources. In the present work, a marine algal culture medium, designated KEP II, was prepared by adding swine waste (3% v/v) fermented by soil bacteria to a dilution of f/2 culture medium (CT). When Phaeodactylum tricornutum was grown in batch culture in KEP II, the cells lasted long at the exponential phase producing the specific growth rate and biomass; the production of total amino acids and secondary metabolites rose up to 5-fold. It also substantially enhanced the maximum quantum yield of photo system (PS) II of P. tricornutum, greatly increased the level of thylakoid membranes containing PS, and stimulated the production of pyrenoids, including enzymes for $CO_2$ fixation in chloroplasts. KEP II should improve the cost efficiency of industrial mass batch cultures and the value of microalgae for long-term preservation of fresh aquaculture feed as well as production of anticancer and antioxidant agents. Specifically, a low-cost medium for growing the diatoms of aquaculture feed will be economically advantageous.

• ALGAE
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.95-106
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• 2007

Blooms of Chattonella species are normally during summer in inland seas with high nutrients from the land and inflowing water. These blooms cause mass fish kills worldwide. We isolated a Chattonella strain from the south coast of Korea and identified it as C. antiqua. It is known that the morphological changes of phytoplankton correspond to the diurnal vertical migrations that follow an intrinsic biological clock and a nutrient acquisition mechanism during the day and night. In electron micrographs, C. antiqua clearly showed a radial distribution of lipid bodies in subcellular regions and plastids composed in which thylakoid layers were perpendicular to the surface. A single pyrenoid was present in each plastid and it was found at the end of the plastid towards the center of the cell. Throughout the day, plastids of C. antiqua cells appeared as an expanded net-like recticulum. During the night, however, the plastids changed their shape and contracted toward the cell periphery. The electron density of pyrenoids was increased in cells harvested during the night.

• Journal of Photoscience
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.175-183
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• 2005

Plants dissipate excess excitation energy from their photosynthetic apparatus by a process called non-photochemical quenching (NPQ). The major part of NPQ is energy dependent quenching (qE) which is dependent on the thylakoid pH and regulated by xanthophyll cycle carotenoids associated with photosystem (PS) II of higher plants. The acidification of the lumen leads to protonation and thus conformational change of light harvesting complex (LHC) proteins as well as PsbS protein of PSII, which results in the induction of qE. Although physiological importance of qE has been well established, the mechanistic understanding is rather insufficient. However, recent finding of crystal structure of LHCII trimer and identification of qE mutants in higher plants and algae enrich and sharpen our understanding of this process. This review summarizes our current knowledge on the qE mechanism. The nature of quenching sites and components involved in this process, and their contribution and interaction for the generation of qE appeared in the proposed models for the qE mechanism are discussed.

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

• BMB Reports
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.717-721
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• 2006

In vitro analyses of type I signal peptidase activities require protein precursors as substrates. Usually, these pre-proteins are expressed in vitro and cleavage of the signal sequence is followed by SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis coupled with autoradiography. Radioactive amino acids have to be incorporated in the expressed protein, since the amount of the in vitro expressed protein is usually very low and processing of the signal peptide cannot be followed by SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis alone. Here we describe a rapid and simple method to express large amounts of a protein precursor in E. coli. We have analyzed the effect of ionophors as well as of azide on the accumulation of expressed protein precursors. Azide blocks the function of SecA and the ionophors dissipate the electrochemical gradient across the cytoplasmic membrane of E. coli. Addition of azide ions resulted in the formation of inclusion bodies, highly enriched with pre-apo-plastocyanine. Plastocyanine is a soluble copper protein, which can be found in the periplasmic space of cyanobacteria as well as in the thylakoid lumen of cyanobacteria and chloroplasts, and the pre-protein contains a cleavable signal sequence at its N-terminus. After purification of cyanobacterial pre-apo-plastocyanine, its signal sequence can be cleaved off by the E. coli signal peptidase, and protein processing was followed on Coomassie stained SDS polyacrylamide gels. We are optimistic that the presented method can be further developed and applied.

• Journal of Photoscience
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.53-61
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• 1998

Using a squash plant, a chilling-sensitive species, and a spinach plant, a chilling-resistant one, effects of chilling temperature on the photosynthetic machinery were studied in terms of chlorophyll fluorescence. When thylakoid membranes were isolated and subjected to incubation at different temperatures, spinach showed stable photosystem II activity at the low temperature side, in contrast to squash which showed quite severe inactivation at low temperature. When parameters of chlorophyll fluorescence were examined, chilling in darkness did not affect either Fv/Fm or photochemical and non-photochemical quenching, in both types of plants. However, chilling of squash plants under irradiance of medium intensity caused a specific decrease in Fv/Fm accompanied by a decline in energy-dependent quenching. Contrastingly, photosystem li of spinach plants were not much affected by light-chilling. When the pool size of zeaxanthin was examined after exposure to high light at different temperatures, squash plants was shown to have a much lower content of antheraxanthin + zeaxanthin, as compared to spinach plants, during low-temperature photoinhibition. These results suggest that chilling-sensitive plants have low capacity to dissipate excitation energy nonradiatively, when they are exposed to low-temperature photoinhibition, and, as a consequence, more vulnerable to photoinhibitory, damage to the photosynthetic apparatus.

• Journal of Plant Biology
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.259-266
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• 1993

In Tris-iso-butanol (TIB; Tris buffer pH 8.8 and 1% iso-butanol)-treated chloroplasts, oxygen evolving activity was more inhibited than Tris-treated chloroplasts, but restored highly by 2,6-dichlorophenol-indophenol (DCPIP) and photoreactivation. To understand the mechanism of this results of TIB in photosynthetic electron transport, system, oxygen consumption and evolution of PS I and PS II were measured and protein of the chloroplasts was analysed. In Tris- and TIB-treated chloroplasts, oxygen evolving activity was increased according to the light intensity. Under 48 W·m-2 light intensity, the oxygen evolving activity in both chloroplasts were similar but as the light intensity was increased, TIB-treated chloroplasts showed higher activity. Under 240 W·m-2 light intensity, TIB-treated chloroplasts showed about 25% higher oxygen evolving activity than Tris-treated chloroplasts. Oxygen evolving activity was increased after photoreactivation in both Tris-treated and TIB-treated chloroplasts. Addition of NH4Cl increased the activity in both chloroplasts but in TIB-treated chloroplasts the increase was 30% higher than that in Tris-treated chloroplasts. In PS I, oxygen evolving activity was not inhibited by both treatments whereas in PS II, significant difference was observed between two treatments. Addition of Mn2+ and Ca2+ enhanced oxygen evolution in both Tris- and TIB-treated chloroplasts. Though enhancement was higher in TIB-treated chloroplasts. No difference was observed n protein analysis of the two thylakoid membrane.

• Journal of Pharmacopuncture
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.18-22
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• 2012

Panax ginseng is a well-known herbal medicine in traditional Asian medicine. Although wild ginseng is widely accepted to be more active than cultivated ginseng in chemoprevention, little has actually been reported on the difference between wild ginseng and cultivated ginseng. Using suppressive subtraction hybridization, we cloned the p-psbB gene as a candidate target gene for a wild ginseng-specific gene. Here, we report that one of the clones isolated in this screen was the chloroplast p-psbB gene, a chlorophyll a-binding inner antenna protein in the photosystem II complex, located in the lipid matrix of the thylakoid membrane. Real-time results showed that the expression of the p-psbB gene was significantly up-regulated in wild ginseng as compared to cultivated ginseng. Thus, the p-psbB gene may be one of the important markers of wild ginseng.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.32-38
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• 2021

Cyanobium is a genus of picoprokaryotic cyanophytes, which includes species worldwide. The present study investigated the morphology, ultrastructure, and molecular phylogeny of the unrecorded genus Cyanobium Rippka & Cohen-Bazire 1983 and species Cyanobium gracile Rippka & Cohen-Bazire 1983. A C. gracile culture from a freshwater sample collected from the Adongji pond was established by single-cell isolation. Morphological data were analyzed using light and transmission electron microscopy. C. gracile lives as solitary cells without gelatinous envelopes and is ovate, oval, or shortly rod-shaped. Thylakoids are laid along the cell walls, with three thylakoid membranes parallel to each other. Nucleoplasm was observed in the center of the cell. Molecular phylogeny performed with data from 16S small subunit ribosomal DNA gene (SSU rDNA) sequences showed that the three strains of C. gracile, including the type strain (PCC6307) and a newly recorded strain (Adong101619), formed a distinct clade with a high supporting value (maximum-likelihood=100, pp=1.00). Based on morphology and molecular data, we report the newly recorded C. gracile in Korea.