Nature 209, 1135 (12 March 1966); doi:10.1038/2091135a0

Further Proof of Direct Oxygen Transfer by Carotenoids in Respiration and Photosynthesis

ELISABETH HASPEL-HORVATOVI

Botanical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Department of Pathological Physiology, Bratislava.

THE hypothesis that carotenoids participate in oxygen transfer in photosynthesis was first put forward by Warburg and Krippahl¹, then by Cholnoky et al. ². Saponikov³ observed increased production of violaxanthin (a diepoxide of lutein) in darkness with a corresponding decrease in lutein production. In illuminated medium the opposite reaction occurred. Hydroxylamine, a wellknown inhibitor of photosynthesis, has been shown⁴ to retard this light–darkness reaction. Blass, Anderson and Calvin⁵ confirmed the work of Saponikov, but, although they observed the decrease of violaxanthin in light, they found no corresponding rise in the concentration of lutein. In these experiments, however, nearly equal specific radioactivity of lutein and violaxanthin was noted. This fact suggests an interrelationship between these two carotenoids in photosynthesis and respiration respectively. Recently, Saakov⁶ gave a complete scheme of the biosynthesis of carotenoids and of their oxido-reduction reactions in photosynthesis.

1. Warburg, O. , and Krippahl, G. , Angew. Chem., 66, 493 (1954). | ISI | ChemPort |
2. Cholnoky, L. , Györgyfy, Katherine , Nagy, Elisabeth , and Pánczél, Marta , Nature, 178, 410 (1956). | ISI | ChemPort |
3. Saponikov, D. I. , Krasovskaja, T. A. , Majevskaja, D. V. , and Popova, O. F. , Dokl. Akad. Nauk S.S.S.R., 113, 465 (1957).
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5. Blass, U. , Anderson, J. M. , and Calvin, M. , Plant Physiol., 34, 329 (1959). | ISI | ChemPort |
6. Saakov, V. S. , Dokl. Akad. Nauk S.S.S.R., 155, 1212 (1964). | PubMed | ISI | ChemPort |
7. Haspelová-Horvatoviová, A. , and Fri, F. , Biológia (Bratislava), 19, 809 (1964).