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Quenching of chlorophyll triplet states by carotenoids in thylakoid membranes
Vahalová, Petra ; Pšenčík, Jakub (advisor) ; Vácha, František (referee)
Photosynthesis is one of the most important biological processes. The photosynthetic apparatus is protected against formation of reactive singlet oxygen by carotenoids. In this work, thylakoid membranes from spinach were studied, and the main aim was to explore the effect of a partial carotenoid removal on the protective function. Carotenes, which are nonpolar carotenoids, were removed from a part of the sample by hexane. About 90 % of carotenes were removed, as revealed by liquid chromatography. However, the high efficiency of chlorophyll triplet state quenching was not affected by the carotene removal. Therefore, it was concluded that the remaining carotenes are probably localized around reaction centres, where they are not accessible to hexane and where their protective function is the most important. At the same time, changes in optical spectra were observed, which were ascribed to structural modifications caused by the carotene removal from the outer parts of the complexes. The carotenoids removal probably caused detachment of outer light-harvesting complexes. This interpretation is supported by the fact that similar changes were observed in experiments with a detergent dodecyl maltoside. 1
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Quenching of chlorophyll triplet states by carotenoids in thylakoid membranes
Vahalová, Petra ; Pšenčík, Jakub (advisor) ; Vácha, František (referee)
Photosynthesis is one of the most important biological processes. The photosynthetic apparatus is protected against formation of reactive singlet oxygen by carotenoids. In this work, thylakoid membranes from spinach were studied, and the main aim was to explore the effect of a partial carotenoid removal on the protective function. Carotenes, which are nonpolar carotenoids, were removed from a part of the sample by hexane. About 90 % of carotenes were removed, as revealed by liquid chromatography. However, the high efficiency of chlorophyll triplet state quenching was not affected by the carotene removal. Therefore, it was concluded that the remaining carotenes are probably localized around reaction centres, where they are not accessible to hexane and where their protective function is the most important. At the same time, changes in optical spectra were observed, which were ascribed to structural modifications caused by the carotene removal from the outer parts of the complexes. The carotenoids removal probably caused detachment of outer light-harvesting complexes. This interpretation is supported by the fact that similar changes were observed in experiments with a detergent dodecyl maltoside. 1
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