In this chapter, we describe a method to prepare photosystem I (PSI) submembrane fractions derived from the chloroplast stroma lamellae of spinach chloroplasts. These preparations retain the cytochrome b 6 /f complex and a pool of about 11 plastoquinones per P700. The PSI submembrane fract ...
Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate (RuBP) carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) activase functions as a mechano-chemical motor protein using the energy from ATP hydrolysis to contort the structure of its target protein, Rubisco. This action modulates the activation state of Rubisco by rem ...
Rubisco activase is a molecular chaperone that modulates the activation state of Rubisco by catalyzing the ATP-dependent removal of tightly-bound inhibitory sugar-phosphates from Rubisco’s catalytic sites. This chapter reports methods developed for the purification of nat ...
The CO2-fixing enzyme Rubisco plays a crucial biological role as a primary determinant of both plant yield and the response of the biosphere to global change. Here, we describe techniques for measuring the amount and activity of Rubisco in higher plants. To accommodate a range of experimental ca ...
Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) is a multifunctional enzyme that catalyzes the fixation of CO2 and O2 in photosynthesis and photorespiration, respectively. As the rate-limiting step in photosynthesis, improving the catalytic properties of R ...
In plants, reactive oxygen species (ROS), also known as active oxygen species (AOS), are associated with normal, physiologic processes as well as with responses to adverse conditions. ROS are connected to stress in many ways: as primary elicitors, as products and propagators of oxidative dam ...
Redox-dependent thylakoid protein phosphorylation regulates both the short- and long-term acclimation of the photosynthetic apparatus to changes in environmental conditions. The major thylakoid phosphoproteins belong to photosystem II (D1, D2, CP43, PsbH) and its light-ha ...
Chlamydomonas is a model organism to study photosynthesis. Thylakoid membranes comprise several proteins belonging to photosystems I and II. In this chapter, we show the accurate proteomic measurements in thylakoid membranes. The chlorophyll-containing membrane protein co ...
The protein complexes in the thylakoid membrane are composed of subunits derived from both the nuclear and chloroplast genomes. While less is known about the mechanisms of delivery of the plastid-encoded subunits, the targeting mechanisms of the nuclear-encoded subunits have been more ...
A method to isolate and purify CP43 and CP47 pigment–protein complexes from Photosystem (PS) II of higher plants is presented. The method has been developed in spinach, but it may also be valid for other plant species, since there is high PSII core complex homology in all plants. Core complex, obtained f ...
When thylakoids of higher plant chloroplasts are exposed to excessive light or moderate heat stress, photosystem II reaction center-binding protein D1 is damaged. The photodamage of the D1 protein is caused by reactive oxygen species, mostly singlet oxygen, and also by endogenous catio ...
This chapter discusses the photosystem II (PSII) reconstitution into proteoliposomes. In the first part of the chapter, protocols are outlined for the preparation of lipid bilayer vesicles (liposomes) constituted of individual thylakoid lipids or their mixtures, for the prepara ...
Isolated photosynthetic materials have a relatively short active life time that limits their effective use. To circumvent this limitation, various immobilization techniques have been designed to improve their stability both under storage and working conditions. The immobil ...
Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002 is an ideal model cyanobacterium for functional genomics and biotechnological applications through metabolic engineering. A gene expression system that takes advantage of its multiple, endogenous plasmids has been constructed in this cyanobacte ...
The chloroplast is the largest and arguably the most complex of the three energy organelles in the plant cell. The biogenesis of the chloroplast requires a combination of thousands of proteins encoded by the chloroplastic and nuclear genomes. Chloroplast function is also subject to modifi ...
Bundle sheath (BS) strand cells and BS thylakoids from C4 plants represent a unique system for various studies using a combination of physiological, biochemical, and molecular approaches. We have developed procedures for mechanical disruption of leaf tissues in order to isolate metab ...
In this chapter, a rapid method to isolate intact chloroplasts from spinach leaves is described. Intact chloroplasts are isolated using two short centrifugation steps and avoiding the use of percoll gradient. Intactness of chloroplast is evaluated by the inability of potassium ferri ...
A series of protocols are presented for the storage, growth, transformation, and characterization of wild type and mutant strains of Synechocystis sp. strain PCC 6803. These protocols include the isolation of genomic DNA and the strategies required for the construction of specific gene i ...
Starch is a primary product of photosynthesis in the chloroplasts of many higher plants. It plays an important role in the day-to-day carbohydrate metabolism of the leaf, and its biosynthesis and degradation represent major fluxes in plant metabolism. Starch serves as a transient reserve of ...
Tetrapyrroles and carotenoids are required for many indispensable functions in photosynthesis. Tetrapyrroles are essential metabolites for photosynthesis, redox reaction, and detoxification of reactive oxygen species and xenobiotics, while carotenoids function as ...