Phycoerythrin Signatures in the Littoral Zone

Abstract

My long-term goal is to contribute to our understanding of factors which determine the distribution and productivity of individual phytoplankton taxa. I am particularly interested in understanding the way that the evolutionary history and genetic diversity of particular taxa constrain their modern distribution and their ability to adapt to environmental change. Phycoerythrin (PE) is the principal light harvesting pigment of a ubiquitous group of marine picocyanobacteria, the marine Synechococcus, and cryptomonads, a group of eucaryotic species occasionally found in high abundance in coastal waters. There are many different closely related pigment-proteins in the PE pigment family and they differ in chromophore composition and number. All PEs are relatively easy to distinguish from other photosynthetic pigments based on fluorescence excitation and emission properties, and the differing chromophore compositions of different PE types can also be distinguished using relatively straightforward fluorescence methodologies (Wood et al., 1985; Wood et al., 1998,1999).

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 30, 1999
Accession Number
ADA630389

Entities

People

  • A. M. Wood

Organizations

  • University of Oregon

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Arabian Sea
  • Biological Pigments
  • Biomes
  • Chromophores
  • Continental Shelves
  • Cyanobacteria
  • Emission Spectra
  • Environment
  • Fluorescence
  • Littoral Zones
  • North America
  • Optical Properties
  • Organic Materials
  • Pigments
  • Regions
  • Remote Sensing
  • Water Masses

Fields of Study

  • Biology
  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Chemistry (specifically Chemical Fluorescence)
  • Educational Psychology
  • Marine Ecotoxicology

Technology Areas

  • Biotechnology