Investigations of the reaction center (RC)-light harvesting (LH) complex from an ancient chlorosome-less anoxygenic phototroph Roseiflexus castenholzii reveal the structural basis by which carotenoids assembly regulates the architecture and quinone exchange of bacterial RC-LH complex.
Christopher I Cazzonelli, Xin Hou ... Barry J Pogson
Carotenoids are not just required as core components for plastid biogenesis, they can be cleaved into an apocarotenoid signal that regulates etioplast and chloroplast development during extended periods of darkness.
Tobacco plants containing xanthophyll astaxanthin show that both photosystems are fully functional in the absence of carotenes, and these pigments are not essential for photosynthesis.
Birds that see ultraviolet light tune the sensitivity of their short-wavelength photoreceptors with colored filters to maximize the number of colors they can see.
James G Granneman, Vickie A Kimler ... Ryan Thummel
Phylogenetic, biochemical, and genetic techniques reveal a novel and ancient member of the Perilipin family, termed Plin6, that functions to concentrate and traffic lipophilic skin pigment in teleost fish.
In the zebrafish relative Danio albolineatus, red erythrophores share a common progenitor with yellow xanthophores and require Cyp2ae2 and Bdh1a for accumulation of red ketocarotenoid pigment.
Julianne M Troiano, Federico Perozeni ... Gabriela S Schlau-Cohen
Light-harvesting complex stress-related is a protein from photosynthetic green algae that prevents damage from sunlight via two distinct conformational processes, which protect against different timescales of solar fluctuations.
Body color change of locusts reveals a new 'palette effect' mechanism by which the red βCBP–β-carotene pigment complex acts as a switch to coordinate between black and green coloration.
The structure of the photosystem I (PSI) supercomplex in Ostreococcus tauri has revealed a unique hybrid of both plant-type and green algal-type PSI supercomplexes with three Lhcp trimers located at the ‘state 2’ position.