With the advent of photoelectric devices (photocells, photomultipliers) in the 1930s, fluorometry of chlorophyll (Chl) a in vivo emerged as a major method in the science of photosynthesis. Early researchers employed fluorometry primarily for two tasks: to elucidate the role in photosynthesis, if any, of other plant pigments, such as Chl b, Chl c, carotenoids and phycobilins; and to use it as a ...

The effects of soil drought on photosynthesis and chlorophyll fluorescence in the leaves of three bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) genotypes were studied. Drought was imposed 14 days after plants growing up. In the primary leaf of all the cultivars, water stress led to a noticeable decrease in both the initial slope of the An/Ci curve and Amax. The most strongly marked reduction in leaf CO2 exchang...

Melatonin is important in the protection of plants suffering various forms of abiotic stress. The molecular mechanisms underlying the melatonin-mediated protection of their photosynthetic machinery are not completely resolved. This study investigates the effects of exogenous melatonin applications on salt-induced damage to the light reaction components of the photosynthetic machinery of tomato ...

In higher plants, regulation of excess absorbed light is essential for their survival and fitness, as it enables avoidance of a build up of singlet oxygen and other reactive oxygen species. Regulation processes (known as non-photochemical quenching; NPQ) can be monitored by steady-state fluorescence on intact plant leaves. Pulse amplitude modulated (PAM) measurements of chlorophyll a fluorescen...

Light-harvesting complex II (LHCII) is pivotal both for collecting solar radiation for photosynthesis, and for protection against photodamage under high light intensities (via a process called nonphotochemical quenching, NPQ). Aggregation of LHCII is associated with fluorescence quenching, and is used as an in vitro model system of NPQ. However, there is no agreement on the nature of the quench...

We have studied the time-resolved fluorescence properties of the light-harvesting complexes (Lhc) of photosystem II (Lhcb) in order to obtain information on the mechanism of energy dissipation (non-photochemical quenching) which is correlated to the conversion of violaxanthin to zeaxanthin in excess light conditions. The chlorophyll fluorescence decay of Lhcb proteins LHCII, CP29, CP26, and CP2...

It is known that the formation of the photochemical product of thymine-thymine cyclobutane pyrimidine dimer (TT-CPD) formed upon UV excitation in DNA is significantly affected by the nature of the flanking bases, and that the oxidation potential of the flanking base correlates with the quenching of TT-CPD formation. However, the electronic details of this correlation have remained controversial...

Although the photosynthetic reaction center is well conserved among different cyanobacterial species, the modes of metabolism, e.g. respiratory, nitrogen and carbon metabolism and their mutual interaction, are quite diverse. To explore such uniformity and diversity among cyanobacteria, here we compare the influence of the light environment on the condition of photosynthetic electron transport t...