Fucoxanthin pigmentation

Fig. 3 Daily dynamics of the fucoxanthin pigments plotted l -hexanoyloxyfucoxanthin to fucoxanthin (hexa/fuco). alongside irradiance (photons m-2 s 1 solid line) in iron- (B, E) Ratio of fucoxanthin to chlorophyll a. (C, F) Ratio...

Wright SW, Jeffrey SW. 1987. Fucoxanthin pigment markers of marine phytoplankton analysed by HPLC and HPTLC. Marine Ecology Progress Series 38 259-266. 

Alberte RS,Friedman AL,Gustafson DL,Rudnick MS and Lyman H(1981) Lightharvesting systems of brown algae and diatoms,isolation and characterization of chlorophyll a/c and chlorophyll a/fucoxanthin pigment-protein complexes, Biochim.Biophys.Acta 635,304-316. 

Most of this amount is in the form of fucoxanthin in various algae and in the three main carotenoids of green leaves lutein, violaxanthin, and neoxanthin. Others produced in much smaller amounts but found widely are p-carotene and zeaxanthin. The other pigments found in certain plants are lycopene and capsanthin (Figure 2.2.1). Colorant preparations have been made from all of these compounds and obviously the composition of a colorant extract reflects the profile of the starting material. Carotenoids are probably the best known of the food colorants derived from natural sources. ... 

Carotenoids are probably the best known of the colorants and certainly the largest group of pigments produced in nature with an annual production estimated at 100,000,000 tons. Most of this is fucoxanthin produced by algae in the ocean and the three main pigments, lutein, violaxanthin and neoxanthin in green leaves.10 Over 600 carotenoid compounds have been reported. 

Structure of various terpenoid piant pigments (a) fucoxanthin, (b) (i-carotene, and (c) xanthophyll. OAc = acetate. 

The distribution map of Phaeocystis presented here can hardly be improved, not even by ocean colour remote sensing the frequent cloud cover over the North Atlantic hinders satellite-borne observations, but not the CPR survey. Also, the pigment signature of Phaeocystis is not very specific (Antajan et al. 2004) so the absorption spectrum and therewith the light reflectance hardly differs from that of other fucoxanthin- and fucoxanthin-derivative-containing phytoplankton... 

The main pigments of Phaeocystis antarctica were chlorophyll a, chlorophyll c + 2, fucoxanthins, diadinoxanthin and diatoxanthin. The ratio of the photoprotective xanthophyll pigments diadi-no- and diatoxanthin to chlorophyll a was 0.229 in... 

The major carotenoids in seaweeds include p-carotene, lutein, violoxanthin, neoxanthin, and zeaxanthin in green seaweeds (chlorophytes) a- p-caro-tene, lutein, and zeaxanthin in red seaweeds (rhodophytes) and, fucoxanthin, p-carotene, and violoxanthin in brown seaweeds (phaeophytes). Fucoxanthin, apart from being the most characteristic pigment of brown seaweeds, is also one of the most abundant carotenoids in nature (Matsuno, 2001 Hosokawa et al., 2004). 

Fucoxanthin. Yellowish-brown pigment found in some members of the Chromista, including kelps and diatoms. 

The FCPA complex is made up of seven protein subunits, each with a molecular weight of 74 kDa and each containing 13 molecules of Chi a, 3 Chi c, 10 fucoxanthin and 1 violaxanthin. The pigment content ofthe FCPA complex is unusually high, with a pigment-to-protein weight ratio of 0.37. 

Fig. 8. Schematic representation of energy flow in the FCPA polypeptide. Abbreviations are 669i agegi 3673. bi 3373 SjE, terminai emitter Fuco, fucoxanthin Viola, violaxanthin Cs and Cl for short- and long-wavelength forms of Chi c. See text for details. Figure source Mimuro, Katoh and Kawai (1990) Spatial arrangement of pigments and their interaction in the fucoxanthin-chiorophyil aJc protein assem-biy (FCPA) isolated from the brown alga Dictyota dichotoma. Analysis by means of polarized spectroscopy. Biochim. Biophys Acta 1015 455,...

Fig. 10. Fluorescence emission and excitation (or absorption) spectra in CSj of p-carotene (A) and fucoxanthin (B). See text for details. Figure source (A) Glllbro and Cogdell (1989) Carotenoid fluorescence. Chem Phys Lett. 158 313. (B) Katoh, Nagashima, and Mimuro (1991) Fluorescence properties of the allenic carotenoid fucoxanthin impiication for energy transfer in photosynthetic pigment systems. Photosynthesis Res 27 223.

In some cases, other spectroscopic methods can be used to identify pigments on the basis of particular structural features. For instance infrared (IR) spectroscopy was used to reveal the presence of an allelic group in the carotenoids fucoxanthin, alloxanthin, and bastaxanthin (Britton et al., 1995). IR spectroscopy was also used to establish the details of the light-induced oxygen-dependent bleaching of the food colorant chlorophyllin (Bertrand et al., 2004 Chenery and Bowring, 2003 Salin et al., 1999). 

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