Identification of carotenoids from green alga Haematococcus pluvialis by HPLC and LC-MS (APCI) and their antioxidant properties.
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Haematococcus pluvialis, a green alga accumulates astaxathin upto 2-3% on dry weight basis. In the present study, identification of carotenoids from Haematococcus cyst cell extract by HPLC and LC-MS (APCI) and their antioxidant properties were evaluated in vitro model systems. The extract exhibited 89% and 78% antioxidant activity in beta-carotene linoleate model, and hydroxyl radical scavenging model at 9 ppm of total carotenoid respectively. The extract also showed 80%, 85% and 79% antioxidant activity against lipid peroxidation in kidney, brain and liver of rats. Low-density lipoprotein oxidation induced by Cu2+ ions also protected (45%, 64% and 75%) by the extract in a dose dependent manner with different carotenoid levels. Thiobarbituric acid reactive substances concentration in the blood, liver, and kidney of rat was also significantly (p<0.005) decreased in H. pluvialis treated rats. Potent antioxidant activity is attributable to various carotenoids present in the extract. (+info)
Characterization and alternative splicing of the complex I 19-kD subunit in Dunaliella salina: expression and mutual correlation of splice variants under diverse stresses.
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Complex I is the first enzyme in the mitochondrial respiratory chain. It extracts energy from NADH, which is produced by the oxidation of sugars and fats, and traps the energy by virtue of a potential difference or voltage across the mitochondrial inner membrane. Herein, the genomic sequence and four splice variants encoding the complex I 19-kD subunit were isolated from Dunaliella salina. There were four transcripts coding for the complex I 19-kD subunit due to alternative splicing in algae, and the four transcripts were translated to two protein isoforms with varying C-terminals. We report the splicing pattern in the 3'-region of the D. salina 19-kD subunit, in which three of the exons (5, 6, and 7) could be alternatively spliced. Moreover, we found that four alternatively spliced variants were subject to coordinated transcription in response to different stresses by real-time quantitative PCR. (+info)
Dynamic evolution of telomeric sequences in the green algal order Chlamydomonadales.
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Cell survival after UV radiation stress in the unicellular chlorophyte Dunaliella tertiolecta is mediated by DNA repair and MAPK phosphorylation.
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A highly active ubiquinol-cytochrome c reductase (bc1 complex) from the colorless alga Polytomella spp., a close relative of Chlamydomonas. Characterization of the heme binding site of cytochrome c1.
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The alga Polytomella spp. offers extraordinary advantages in the preparation of mitochondria since it lacks chloroplasts and a cell wall. In this work the mitochondrial bc1 complex from Polytomella spp. was solubilized and purified by ion exchange chromatography. The complex was found to be composed of 10 polypeptides and exhibited high rates of ubiquinol-cytochrome c oxidoreductase activity (> 300 s-1) sensitive to antimycin and myxothiazol. The molecular mass of the bc1 complex from Polytomella spp. was assayed by gel filtration and estimated to be of 256,300 Da. Therefore, this complex exhibits the unique property of behaving as a monomer. Amino-terminal sequencing of cytochrome c1 identified 7 residues, from which a deoxyoligonucleotide was designed. A second deoxyoligonucleotide was constructed based on a highly conserved region of the c1 type cytochromes. With these probes, a fragment of the cytochrome c1 gene was amplified by polymerase chain reaction and sequenced. The deduced sequence of the apoprotein exhibited a consensus binding site CXXCH. The data suggest that the cytochrome c1 from Polytomella spp. differs from other protoctists like Crithidia and Euglena, i.e. it exhibits a heme binding domain structurally related to the bovine, yeast, and Neurospora c1 type cytochromes. (+info)
The relationship between cell size and cell fate in Volvox carteri.
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In Volvox carteri development, visibly asymmetric cleavage divisions set apart large embryonic cells that will become asexual reproductive cells (gonidia) from smaller cells that will produce terminally differentiated somatic cells. Three mechanisms have been proposed to explain how asymmetric division leads to cell specification in Volvox: (a) by a direct effect of cell size (or a property derived from it) on cell specification, (b) by segregation of a cytoplasmic factor resembling germ plasm into large cells, and (c) by a combined effect of differences in cytoplasmic quality and cytoplasmic quantity. In this study a variety of V. carteri embryos with genetically and experimentally altered patterns of development were examined in an attempt to distinguish among these hypotheses. No evidence was found for regionally specialized cytoplasm that is essential for gonidial specification. In all cases studied, cells with a diameter > approximately 8 microns at the end of cleavage--no matter where or how these cells had been produced in the embryo--developed as gonidia. Instructive observations in this regard were obtained by three different experimental interventions. (a) When heat shock was used to interrupt cleavage prematurely, so that presumptive somatic cells were left much larger than they normally would be at the end of cleavage, most cells differentiated as gonidia. This result was obtained both with wild-type embryos that had already divided asymmetrically (and should have segregated any cytoplasmic determinants involved in cell specification) and with embryos of a mutant that normally produces only somatic cells. (b) When individual wild-type blastomeres were isolated at the 16-cell stage, both the anterior blastomeres that normally produce two gonidia each and the posterior blastomeres that normally produce no gonidia underwent modified cleavage patterns and each produced an average of one large cell that developed as a gonidium. (c) When large cells were created microsurgically in a region of the embryo that normally makes only somatic cells, these large cells became gonidia. These data argue strongly for a central role of cell size in germ/soma specification in Volvox carteri, but leave open the question of how differences in cell size are actually transduced into differences in gene expression. (+info)