scholarly journals Lateral distribution and diffusion of plastocyanin in chloroplast thylakoids.

1989 ◽  
Vol 108 (4) ◽  
pp. 1397-1405 ◽  
Author(s):  
W Haehnel ◽  
R Ratajczak ◽  
H Robenek

The lateral distribution of plastocyanin in the thylakoid lumen of spinach and pea chloroplasts was studied by combining immunocytochemical localization and kinetic measurements of P700+ reduction at high time resolution. In dark-adapted chloroplasts, the concentration of plastocyanin in the photosystem I containing stroma membranes exceeds that in photosystem II containing grana membranes by a factor of about two. Under these conditions, the reduction of P700+ with a halftime of 12 microseconds after a laser flash of saturating intensity indicates that to greater than 95% of total photosystem I a plastocyanin molecule is bound. An analysis of the labeling densities, the length of the different lumenal regions, and the total amounts of plastocyanin and P700 shows that most of the remaining presumable mobile plastocyanin is found in the granal lumen. This distribution of plastocyanin is consistent with a more negative surface charge density in the stromal than in the granal lumen. During illumination the concentration of plastocyanin in grana increases at the expense of that in stroma lamellae, indicating a light-driven diffusion from stroma to grana regions. Our observations provide evidence that a high concentration of plastocyanin in grana in the light favors the lateral electron transport from cytochrome b6/f complexes in appressed grana across the long distance to photosystem I in nonappressed stroma membranes.

Author(s):  
James Cronshaw

Long distance transport in plants takes place in phloem tissue which has characteristic cells, the sieve elements. At maturity these cells have sieve areas in their end walls with specialized perforations. They are associated with companion cells, parenchyma cells, and in some species, with transfer cells. The protoplast of the functioning sieve element contains a high concentration of sugar, and consequently a high hydrostatic pressure, which makes it extremely difficult to fix mature sieve elements for electron microscopical observation without the formation of surge artifacts. Despite many structural studies which have attempted to prevent surge artifacts, several features of mature sieve elements, such as the distribution of P-protein and the nature of the contents of the sieve area pores, remain controversial.


1970 ◽  
Vol 23 (02) ◽  
pp. 261-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
G Zbinden ◽  
J. N Mehrishi ◽  
S Tomlin

SummaryThe severity of platelet damage induced by hyper- and hypotonic NaCl solutions and freezing and thawing was assessed by microscopic evaluation and measuring inhibition of 5-HT uptake. The same techniques were used to quantitate the effects of aggregating agents. The positively charged macromolecules PS, Poly-L und Poly-O reduced the net negative surface charge as determined by microelectrophoresis, caused platelet aggregation and inhibited 5-HT uptake. The damaging effects of Poly-L and Poly-O were more severe and more closely related to concentration than that of PS. The negatively charged macromolecules Poly-IC and NaPS increased the anodic electrophoretic mobility. Poly-IC and heparin caused a low degree of platelet clumping and no inhibition of 5-HT uptake. NaPS produced severe platelet damage with extensive clumping and complete inhibition of 5-HT uptake. Na laurate had the same effect, but did not alter electrophoretic mobility. ADP caused concentration-dependent platelet aggregation and inhibition of 5-HT uptake. The effects of ADP and NaPS were compared in agitated and non-agitated platelet samples containing identical concentrations of the 2 compounds. Agitation was found to increase the degree of platelet clumping and to reduce 5-HT uptake.


1996 ◽  
Vol 34 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 309-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
X. S. Jia ◽  
Herbert H. P. Fang ◽  
H. Furumai

Changes of surface charge and extracellular polymer (ECP) content were investigated in batch experiments for three anaerobic sludges, each of which had been enriched at 35°C and pH 639-7.3 for more than 40 batches using propionate, butyrate and glucose, individually, as the sole substrate. Results showed that both ECP and the negative surface charge were dependent on the growth phase of microorganisms. They increased at the beginning of all batches when the microorganisms were in the prolific-growth phase, having high substrate concentration and food-to-microorganisms ratio. Both later gradually returned to their initial levels when the microorganisms were in the declined-growth phase, as the substrate became depleted. The negative surface charge increased linearly with the total-ECP content in all series with slopes of 0.0187, 0.0212 and 0.0157 meq/mg-total-ECP for sludge degrading propionate, butyrate and glucose, respectively. The change of surface charge for the first two sludges was mainly due to the increase of proteinaceous fraction of ECP; but, for glucose-degrading sludge, that could be due to the increases of both proteinaceous and carbohydrate fractions of ECP. The negative-charged nature of anaerobic sludge implies that cations should be able to promote granulation of anaerobic sludge.


Cosmetics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 45
Author(s):  
Eduardo Guzmán ◽  
Laura Fernández-Peña ◽  
Lorenzo Rossi ◽  
Mathieu Bouvier ◽  
Francisco Ortega ◽  
...  

This work analyzes the dispersion of two highly hydrophobic actives, (9Z)-N-(1,3-dihydroxyoctadecan-2-yl)octadec-9-enamide (ceramidelike molecule) and 2,6-diamino-4-(piperidin-1-yl)pyrimidine 1-oxide (minoxidil), using oil-in-water nanoemulsions with the aim of preparing stable and safe aqueous-based formulations that can be exploited for enhancing the penetration of active compounds through cosmetic substrates. Stable nanoemulsions with a droplet size in the nanometric range (around 200 nm) and a negative surface charge were prepared. It was possible to prepare formulations containing up to 2 w/w% of ceramide-like molecules and more than 10 w/w% of minoxidil incorporated within the oil droplets. This emulsions evidenced a good long-term stability, without any apparent modification for several weeks. Despite the fact that this work is limited to optimize the incorporation of the actives within the nanoemulsion-like formulations, it demonstrated that nanoemulsions should be considered as a very promising tool for enhancing the distribution and availability of hydrophobic molecules with technological interest.


MRS Advances ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (16) ◽  
pp. 815-823
Author(s):  
Ian Sands ◽  
Jinhyung Lee ◽  
Wuxia Zhang ◽  
Yupeng Chen

AbstractRNA delivery into deep tissues with dense extracellular matrix (ECM) has been challenging. For example, cartilage is a major barrier for RNA and drug delivery due to its avascular structure, low cell density and strong negative surface charge. Cartilage ECM is comprised of collagens, proteoglycans, and various other noncollagneous proteins with a spacing of 20nm. Conventional nanoparticles are usually spherical with a diameter larger than 50-60nm (after cargo loading). Therefore, they presented limited success for RNA delivery into cartilage. Here, we developed Janus base nanotubes (JBNTs, self-assembled nanotubes inspired from DNA base pairs) to assemble with small RNAs to form nano-rod delivery vehicles (termed as “Nanopieces”). Nanopieces have a diameter of ∼20nm (smallest delivery vehicles after cargo loading) and a length of ∼100nm. They present a novel breakthrough in ECM penetration due to the reduced size and adjustable characteristics to encourage ECM and intracellular penetration.


MRS Advances ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (46) ◽  
pp. 3121-3126
Author(s):  
Sunith Varghese ◽  
Charuksha Walgama ◽  
Mark Wilkins ◽  
Sadagopan Krishnan ◽  
Kaan Kalkan

ABSTRACTThe present work investigates sol-gel synthesized vanadium oxyhydrate (V2O5·H2O) nanowires decorated with Au nanoparticles as potential photolytic H2 generators. As determined by UV photoelectron and optical spectroscopies, the conduction band edge of V2O5·H2O lies 0.6 eV below standard H+ reduction potential, implying no H2 can be generated. On the contrary, as measured by gas chromatography, our nanoconjugates yield reproducible light-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency of 5.3%, for the first hour of photolysis under 470 nm excitation. To explain the observed hydrogen reduction, we have hypothesized the vanadia electron energy levels are raised by some negative surface charge. With the objective of validating this hypothesis, we have performed cyclic current-voltage measurements. The derived conduction and valence band edge energies are not only consistent with the optical band gaps, but also validate the hypothesized energy increase by 1.6 eV, respectively. The negative surface charge is also corroborated by the ζ-potential. Based on the measured pH of 2.4, we attribute the negative surface charge to Lewis acid nature of the nanowires, establishing dative bonding with OH−. The present work establishes the importance of surface charge in photoelectrochemical reactions, where it can be instrumental and enabling in photolytic fuel production.


2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cathelijne R. Stoof ◽  
Anouk I. Gevaert ◽  
Christine Baver ◽  
Bahareh Hassanpour ◽  
Verónica L. Morales ◽  
...  

Ash plays an important role in controlling runoff and erosion processes after wildfire and has frequently been hypothesised to clog soil pores and reduce infiltration. Yet evidence for clogging is incomplete, as research has focussed on identifying the presence of ash in soil; the actual flow processes remain unknown. We conducted laboratory infiltration experiments coupled with microscope observations in pure sands, saturated hydraulic conductivity analysis, and interaction energy calculations, to test whether ash can clog pores (i.e. block pores such that infiltration is hampered and ponding occurs). Although results confirmed previous observations of ash washing into pores, clogging was not observed in the pure sands tested, nor were conditions found for which this does occur. Clogging by means of strong attachment of ash to sand was deemed unlikely given the negative surface charge of the two materials. Ponding due to washing in of ash was also considered improbable given the high saturated conductivity of pure ash and ash–sand mixtures. This first mechanistic step towards analysing ash transport and attachment processes in field soils therefore suggests that pore clogging by ash is unlikely to occur in sands. Discussion is provided on other mechanisms by which ash can affect post-fire hydrology.


Soil Research ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 45 (6) ◽  
pp. 465 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Liang ◽  
Ren-kou Xu ◽  
Diwakar Tiwari ◽  
An-zhen Zhao

The effect of arsenate on adsorption of Zn(II) in 3 variable charge soils (Hyper-Rhodic Ferralsol, Rhodic Ferralsol, and Haplic Acrisol) and the desorption of pre-adsorbed Zn(II) in the presence of arsenate were investigated in this study. Results showed that the presence of arsenate led to an increase in both the adsorption and desorption of Zn(II) in these variable charge soils. It was also suggested that the enhanced Zn(II) adsorption by arsenate was mainly due to the increase in negative surface charge of the soils induced by the specific adsorption of arsenate, and the increase in electrostatically adsorbed Zn(II) was responsible for the increase in the desorption of Zn(II). The effect of arsenate on Zn(II) adsorption primarily depends on the initial concentration of arsenate and Zn(II), the system pH, and the nature of soils. The enhanced adsorption of Zn(II) increased with the increase in the initial concentration of arsenate and the amount of arsenate adsorbed by the soils. The presence of arsenate decreased the zeta potential of soil suspensions and soil IEP and thus shifted the adsorption edge of Zn(II) to a lower pH region. The effect of arsenate on Zn(II) adsorption in these 3 soils followed the order Hyper-Rhodic Ferralsol > Rhodic Ferralsol > Haplic Acrisol, which was consistent to the contents of iron oxides in these soils and the amount of arsenate adsorbed by the soils.


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