The molecular bases of photoadaptation in the unicellular marine chlorophyte, Dunaliella Tertiolecta

Conference · Tue May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1990 · Plant Physiology, Supplement; (USA)

OSTI ID:5626645

LaRoche, J; Falkowski, P ^[1]

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1. Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY (USA)

Dunaliella tertiolecta photoadapts by altering the cellular abundance of light-harvesting chlorophyll proteins. Using Western blots, we observed a rapid initial increase in the cellular abundance of the light-harvesting protein complex which forms the antennae of photosystem II (LHC II) during a shift from high to low irradiance levels. We have isolated and characterized three different cDNA clones encoding for the LHC II apoproteins and one of these clones was used as a probe to study changes in LHC II messenger RNA levels on Northern blots. We show that, following a shift from high (700 {mu}mole quanta m{sup {minus}2}s{sup {minus}1}) to low (70 {mu}mole quanta m{sup {minus}2}s{sup {minus}1}) irradiance, there is a large, rapid increase in the amount of mRNA encoding for the LHC II apoproteins. We are currently investigating possible interactions between the chlorophyll and LHC II apoproteins biosynthetic pathways using a variety of metabolic inhibitors.

• OSTI ID: 5626645
• Report Number(s): CONF-9007196--
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Plant Physiology, Supplement; (USA) Journal Volume: 93:1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

550700* -- Microbiology
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
ALGAE
AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS
BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS
CARBOXYLIC ACIDS
CHLOROPHYLL
ECOSYSTEMS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
HETEROCYCLIC ACIDS
HETEROCYCLIC COMPOUNDS
NUCLEIC ACIDS
ORGANIC ACIDS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
PHYTOCHROMES
PIGMENTS
PLANTS
PORPHYRINS
PROTEINS
RADIATIONS
RNA
VISIBLE RADIATION