Early Photosynthesis

Pulse radiolysis has been used to study elementary reactions of importance in photosynthesis. Early experiments provided rate constants for electron transfer reactions of carotenoid radical cations and radical anions with chlorophyll pigments.More recent experiments dealt with intramolecular electron transfer in covalently bound carotenoid-porphyrin and carotenoid-porphyrin-quinone compounds. Intramolecular electron transfer reactions within metalloproteins have been studied by various authors much of that work has been reviewed by Buxton, and more recent work has been published. Pulse radiolysis was also used to study charge migration in stacked porphyrins and phthalocyanines. Most of these studies were carried out by pulse radiolysis because this techruque allowed proper initiation of the desired processes and pemtitted determination of very high reaction rate constants. The distinct character of radiolysis to initiate reactions with the medium, in contrast with the case of photolysis, and the recent developments in pulse radiolysis techniques promise continued application of this technique for the study of porphyrins and of more complex chemical systems. 

In certain plant habitats or niches, access to resources depends crucially upon rapid growth under conditions of climatic stress. Examples of this phenomenon are particularly obvious on shallow soils in continental climates where the growth window between winter cold and summer desiccation may be extremely short. In deciduous woodlands in the cool temperate zone an essentially similar niche arises in the period between snow melt and closure of the tree canopy. Both circumstances provide opportunities for high rates of photosynthesis and mineral nutrient capture in the late spring but depend upon rapid expansion of roots and shoots in the low-temperature conditions of the late winter and early spring. 

Principle Chlorophyll fluorescence is a sensitive and early indicator of damage to photosynthesis and to the physiology of the plant resulting from the effect of allelochemicals, which directly or indirectly affects the function of photosystem II (Bolhar-Nordenkemf et ah, 1989, Krause and Weiss 1991). This approach is convenient for a photosynthesis analysis in situ and in vivo and quick detection of otherwise invisible leaf damage. The photosynthetic plant efficiency was measured using the method of induced chlorophyll fluorescence kinetics of photosystem II [Fo, non-variable fluorescence Fm, maximum fluorescence Fv=Fm-Fo, variable fluorescence t /2, half the time required to reach maximum fluorescence from Fo to Fm and photosynthetic efficiency Fv/Fm]. 

Most of the interest in mimicing aspects of photosynthesis has centered on a wide variety of model systems for electron transfer. Among the early studies were experiments involving photoinduced electron transfer in solution from chlorophyll a to p-benzoquinone (21, 22) which has been shown to occur via the excited triplet state of chlorophyll a. However, these solution studies are not very good models of the in vivo reaction center because the in vivo reaction occurs from the excited singlet state and the donor and acceptor are held at a fixed relationship to each other in the reaction-center protein. 

D-aZbacterial polysaccharides.174- 176(al Plants show heptulokinase activity176 1 the purification of D-aZfro-heptulose phosphate from Sedum spectabile has been described.176 1 The occurrence of D-wumno-heptulose phosphate in... 

Early reviews by O Leary (1981) and Farquhar et al. (1989) have provided the biochemical background of carbon isotope fractionations during photosynthesis, with more recent accounts by Hayes (2001) and Freeman (2001). 

Another important phytotoxic atmospheric pollutant that has been studied with respect to its inhibitory effects on plant photosynthesis is peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN). This phytotoxicant applied for 30 min at 1 ppm depressed the incorporation of 1 C02 into intact pinto bean leaves, but only after visible tissue injury started to develop (20). From companion studies on isolated chloroplasts, it was concluded that PAN-induced inhibition was probably associated with the carboxylating reaction or the chloroplast light-energy conversion system leading to assimilative power. The inhibition appeared to result in a quantitative reduction (but not a qualitative change) in the early products of photosynthesis. 

---