The requested instrumentation will facilitate the participation of PI, undergraduate women and post baccalaureate students, and faculty at Mills College, Oakland, CA in two research projects and increase potential for future projects. The general descriptions of the current projects are:
1) Control of yellow starthistle achene germination by phytochrome pigment 2) Relative pigment composition of two cyanobacteria genera, Spirulina and Arthrospira, compared to chlorophyte alga of the Spirogyra genus.
A spectroradiometer plus LED and tunable laser illuminating instruments will enable us to deliver precise doses of photons in narrow bandwidths and to calibrate our systems precisely. The combined instrumentation will also allow us to analyze the absorbance characteristics of our experimental organisms. Our phytochrome research aims to obtain results that add to a body of knowledge about phytochrome, a plant pigment that controls developmental processes. Phytochrome acts as a switching mechanism whereby red light (660nm) initiates developmental processes by a conformation change in the chromophore and apoprotein. The initiating signal can be reversed by light wavelengths in the far red (730 nm) range by returning the chromophore and its attached apoprotein to the original conformation. The escape time from reversal of the developmental signal is one goal of our project. The phytochrome system is a very interesting biological switching mechanism with potential for useful applications in many areas of agriculture and medicine.
