Singlet Oxygen Production by PSII Under Light Stress: Mechanism, Detection and the Protective role of β-Carotene

In this review, I outline the indirect evidence for the formation of singlet oxygen (1O2) obtained from experiments with the isolated PSII reaction center complex. I also review the methods we used to measure singlet oxygen directly, including luminescence at 1,270 nm, both steady state and time resolved. Other methods we used were histidine-catalyzed molecular oxygen uptake (enabling 1O2 yield measurements), and dye bleaching and difference absorption spectroscopy to identify where quenchers of 1O2 can access this toxic species. We also demonstrated the protective behavior of carotenoids bound within Chl–protein complexes which bring about a substantial amount of 1O2 quenching within the reaction center complex. Finally, I describe how these techniques have been used and expanded in research on photoinhibition and on the role of 1O2 as a signaling molecule in instigating cellular responses to various stress factors. I also discuss the current views on the role of 1O2 as a signaling molecule and the distance it might be able to travel within cells.

• Publication year

  2014

• Venue

  Plant and Cell Physiology

• Publication date

  2014-02-23

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Chemistry, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1093/pcp/pcu040PMID 24566536PMCID 4080269
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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