1887

Abstract

Cyanobacteria use a sophisticated system of pigments to collect light energy across the visible spectrum for photosynthesis. The pigments are assembled in structures called phycobilisomes, composed of phycoerythrocyanin, phycocyanin and allophycocyanin, which absorb energy and transfer it to chlorophyll in photosystem II reaction centres. All of the components of this system are fluorescent, allowing sensitive measurements of energy transfer using single cell confocal fluorescence microscopy. The native pigments can be interrogated without the use of reporters. Here, we use confocal fluorescence microscopy to monitor changes in the efficiency of energy transfer as single cells age, between the time they are born at cell division until they are ready to divide again. Alteration of fluorescence was demonstrated to change with the age of the cyanobacterial cell.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.079608-0
2015-01-01
2024-12-14
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/micro/161/1/84.html?itemId=/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.079608-0&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Fu J., Caulfield H. J. 2007; Applying color discrimination to polarization discrimination in images. Opt Commun 272:362–366 [View Article]
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Gantt E. 1981; Phycobilisomes. Annu Rev Plant Physiol 32:327–347 [View Article]
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Glazer A. N. 1982; Phycobilisomes: structure and dynamics. Annu Rev Microbiol 36:173–198 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Glazer A. N. 1985; Light harvesting by phycobilisomes. Annu Rev Biophys Chem 14:47–77 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Inoué S., Spring K. R. 1997; Generation of image contrast. In Video Microscopy: the Fundamentals, 2nd edn. pp. 89–97 New York: Plenum Press; [View Article]
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Kumazaki S., Akari M., Hasegawa M. 2013; Transformation of thylakoid membranes during differentiation from vegetative cell into heterocyst visualized by microscopic spectral imaging. Plant Physiol 161:1321–1333 [View Article][PubMed]
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Marques O. 2011; Color image processing. In Practical Image and Video Processing Using MATLAB pp. 387–426 Hoboken, NJ: Wiley; [View Article]
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Russ J. C. 2011; Acquiring images. In The Image Processing Handbook, 6th edn. pp. 34–41 Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press;
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.079608-0
Loading
/content/journal/micro/10.1099/mic.0.079608-0
Loading

Data & Media loading...

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error