Abstract
THE hypothesis that carotenoids participate in oxygen transfer in photosynthesis was first put forward by Warburg and Krippahl1, then by Cholnoky et al.2. Sapožnikov3 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 Sapožnikov, 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.
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References
Warburg, O., and Krippahl, G., Angew. Chem., 66, 493 (1954).
Cholnoky, L., Györgyfy, Katherine, Nagy, Elisabeth, and Pánczél, Marta, Nature, 178, 410 (1956).
Sapožnikov, D. I., Krasovskaja, T. A., Majevskaja, D. V., and Popova, O. F., Dokl. Akad. Nauk S.S.S.R., 113, 465 (1957).
Sapožnikov, D. I., Ejdelman, E. M., Bažanova, D. V., and Popova, O. F., Dokl. Akad. Nauk S.S.S.R., 127, 1128 (1959).
Blass, U., Anderson, J. M., and Calvin, M., Plant Physiol., 34, 329 (1959).
Saakov, V. S., Dokl. Akad. Nauk S.S.S.R., 155, 1212 (1964).
Haspelová-Horvatovičová, A., and Frič, F., Biológia (Bratislava), 19, 809 (1964).
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HASPEL-HORVATOVIČ, E. Further Proof of Direct Oxygen Transfer by Carotenoids in Respiration and Photosynthesis. Nature 209, 1135 (1966). https://doi.org/10.1038/2091135a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/2091135a0
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