saffron (crocus sativus) is the most valuable and indigenous crop in iran. the stigmas of flower are used as a popular natural flavouring, colouring and medicinal agent. however, the market suffers from frauds in this plant such as mixing with safflower petals due to high profit. identification of these frauds with conventional and biochemical methods is difficult and low sensitive. therefore, ...

Putrescine uptake and the kinetics of this uptake were studied in petals of Saintpaulia ionantha Wendl. Uptake experiments of [(3)H] or [(14)C] putrescine were done on single petals at room temperature at various pH values. The results show that putrescine uptake occurs against a concentration gradient at low external putrescine concentration (0.5-100 micromolar) and follows a concentration gra...

BACKGROUND Carotenoids are multifunctional, taxonomically widespread and biotechnologically important pigments. Their biosynthesis serves as a model system for understanding the evolution of secondary metabolism. Microbial carotenoid diversity and evolution has hitherto been analyzed primarily from structural and biosynthetic perspectives, with the few phylogenetic analyses of microbial caroten...

Chlorophylless flower petals are known to be composed of non-photosynthetic tissues. Here, we show that the light energy storage that can be photoacoustically measured in flower petals of Petunia hybrida is approximately 10-12%. We found that the supposed chlorophylless photosynthesis is an anoxygenic, anthocyanin-dependent process occurring in blue flower petals (ADAPFP), accompanied by non-re...

While stress is expected to increase developmental instability (DI), not all studies confirm this. This heterogeneity could in part be due to the use of subtle differences between the left and right side of bilateral symmetrical organisms to quantify DI, leading to large sampling error obscuring associations with DI. Traits that develop simultaneously more than twice (such as flower petals or b...

the microalgae, dunaliella salina was isolated from maharlu salt lake, south east of shiraz, iran. the isolated strain was identified by both morphological and physiological markers. the complete its region (its1 + its2) including the 5.8s rdna gene used as molecular marker confirmed our identification. growth and cell proliferation, total chlorophyll and carotenoid contents were determined in ...

The aim of the present was to isolate the microorganisms from different environment which is capable of producing high carotenoid pigments. Forty one soil samples were collected from different areas under different environmental and different climatic conditions. A total of 24 yellow pigmented colonies forming cocci shaped, gram positive bacteria were isolated. All the twenty four isolates were...

BACKGROUND In engineered strains of Escherichia coli, bioconversion efficiency is determined by not only metabolic flux but also the turnover efficiency of relevant pathways. Methyl-D-erythritol 4-phosphate (MEP)-dependent carotenoid biosynthesis in E. coli requires efficient turnover of precursors and balanced flux among precursors, cofactors, and cellular energy. However, the imbalanced suppl...

THE present paper records the results of some analyses of carotenoid material in cave detritus, carried out as part of a research on the causes of pigment lack in the cave fauna. There is reason to suppose that the ancestral pigment of the numerous unpigmented cavernicolous Crustacea was the carotenoid pigment astacin, since closely related above-ground species frequently contain this pigment. ...

Many vertebrates use carotenoid-based signals in social or sexual interactions. Honest signalling via carotenoids implies some limitation of carotenoid-based colour expression among phenotypes in the wild, and at least five limiting proximate mechanisms have been hypothesized. Limitation may arise by carotenoid-availability, genetic constraints, body condition, parasites, or detrimental effects...