Stepping out of the dark: How higher plants cope with the risk
of photooxidative damage
Apel, K.
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Universitätstrasse 2,
CH-8092 Zürich, Switzerland
Chlorophylls (Chls) are one of the few major classes of substances in living organisms that are capable of absorbing light energy. They have a strong tendency, if exposed to light, to photosensitize the radical formation of singlet oxygen which is a powerful oxidant and triggers a free radical chain reaction that can destroy biological membranes, nucleic acids, enzymes and many other proteins. In order to handle such potentially hazardous substances, photosynthetic organisms have evolved strategies to avoid the accumulation of large amounts of free chlorophylls and their biosynthetic intermediates. A new protection mechanism against photooxidative damage has recently been discovered that seems to operate exclusively at the onset of photomorphogenesis of higher plants after etiolated seedlings have been exposed to light. This protection against photooxidative damage depends on the transient appearance of a specific form of the NADPH-protochlorophyllide oxidoreductase that can be found only in etioplasts of higher plants.
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| LOCATION |
DATE |
TIME |
| Lecture Hall I |
Wednesday, April 8 |
01:30 pm |