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Carotinoid
Carotenoids () are yellow, orange, and red organic pigments that are produced by plants and algae, as well as several bacteria, archaea, and fungi. Carotenoids give the characteristic color to pumpkins, carrots, parsnips, corn, tomatoes, canaries, flamingos, salmon, lobster, shrimp, and daffodils. Over 1,100 identified carotenoids can be further categorized into two classes xanthophylls (which contain oxygen) and carotenes (which are purely hydrocarbons and contain no oxygen). All are derivatives of tetraterpenes, meaning that they are produced from 8 isoprene units and contain 40 carbon atoms. In general, carotenoids absorb wavelengths ranging from 400 to 550 nanometers (violet to green light). This causes the compounds to be deeply colored yellow, orange, or red. Carotenoids are the dominant pigment in autumn leaf coloration of about 15-30% of tree species, but many plant colors, especially reds and purples, are due to polyphenols. Carotenoids serve two key roles in plants ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Xanthophyll
Xanthophylls (originally phylloxanthins) are yellow pigments that occur widely in nature and form one of two major divisions of the carotenoid group; the other division is formed by the carotenes. The name is from Greek: (), meaning "yellow", and (), meaning "leaf"), due to their formation of the yellow band seen in early chromatography of leaf pigments. Molecular structure As both are carotenoids, xanthophylls and carotenes are similar in structure, but xanthophylls contain oxygen atoms while carotenes are ''purely hydrocarbons'', which do not contain oxygen. Their content of oxygen causes xanthophylls to be more polar (in molecular structure) than carotenes, and causes their separation from carotenes in many types of chromatography. (Carotenes are usually more orange in color than xanthophylls.) Xanthophylls present their oxygen either as hydroxyl groups and/or as hydrogen atoms substituted by oxygen atoms when acting as a bridge to form epoxides. Occurrence Like other c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Non-photochemical Quenching
Non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) is a mechanism employed by plants and algae to protect themselves from the adverse effects of high light intensity. It involves the quenching of singlet excited state chlorophylls (Chl) via enhanced internal conversion (chemistry), internal conversion to the ground state (non-radiative decay), thus harmlessly dissipating excess excitation energy as heat through molecular vibrations. NPQ occurs in almost all photosynthetic eukaryotes (algae and plants), and helps to regulate and protect photosynthesis in environments where light energy Absorption (electromagnetic radiation), absorption exceeds the capacity for light utilization in photosynthesis. Process When a molecule of chlorophyll absorbs light it is promoted from its ground state to its first singlet excited state. The excited state then has three main fates. Either the energy is; 1. passed to another chlorophyll molecule by Förster resonance energy transfer (in this way excitation is gradu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Photoprotection
Photoprotection is the biochemical process that helps organisms cope with molecular damage caused by sunlight. Plants and other oxygenic phototrophs have developed a suite of photoprotective mechanisms to prevent photoinhibition and oxidative stress caused by excess or fluctuating light conditions. Humans and other animals have also developed photoprotective mechanisms to avoid UV photodamage to the skin, prevent DNA damage, and minimize the downstream effects of oxidative stress. In photosynthetic organisms In organisms that perform oxygenic photosynthesis, excess light may lead to photoinhibition, or photoinactivation of the reaction centers, a process that does not necessarily involve chemical damage. When photosynthetic antenna pigments such as chlorophyll are excited by light absorption, unproductive reactions may occur by charge transfer to molecules with unpaired electrons. Because oxygenic phototrophs generate O2 as a byproduct from the photocatalyzed splitting ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis ( ) is a system of biological processes by which photosynthetic organisms, such as most plants, algae, and cyanobacteria, convert light energy, typically from sunlight, into the chemical energy necessary to fuel their metabolism. ''Photosynthesis'' usually refers to oxygenic photosynthesis, a process that produces oxygen. Photosynthetic organisms store the chemical energy so produced within intracellular organic compounds (compounds containing carbon) like sugars, glycogen, cellulose and starches. To use this stored chemical energy, an organism's cells metabolize the organic compounds through cellular respiration. Photosynthesis plays a critical role in producing and maintaining the oxygen content of the Earth's atmosphere, and it supplies most of the biological energy necessary for complex life on Earth. Some bacteria also perform anoxygenic photosynthesis, which uses bacteriochlorophyll to split hydrogen sulfide as a reductant instead of water, p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Updated Graphic 24 , also known as a software update
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Update(s) or Updated may refer to: Music * ''Update'' (Anouk album), 2004 * ''Update'' (Berlin Jazz Orchestra album), 2004 * ''Update'' (Jane Zhang album), 2007 * ''Update'' (Mal Waldron album), 1987 * ''Update'' (Yandel album), 2017 * ''Updated'' (M. Pokora album), an English-language version of ''Mise à jour'', 2011 Other uses * Update (SQL), a statement for changing database records * ''Updates'', a program broadcast by CNN Philippines * Bayesian inference, a type of reasoning also described as updating * Upgrade See also * Patch (computing) A patch is data that is intended to be used to modify an existing software resource such as a computer program, program or a computer file, file, often to fix software bug, bugs and security vulnerability, security vulnerabilities. A patch may b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Polyphenol
Polyphenols () are a large family of naturally occurring phenols. They are abundant in plants and structurally diverse. Polyphenols include phenolic acids, flavonoids, tannic acid, and ellagitannin, some of which have been used historically as dyes and for tanning (leather), tanning garments. Etymology The name derives from the Ancient Greek word (, meaning "many, much") and the word ‘phenol’ which refers to a chemical structure formed by attachment of an aromatic benzenoid (phenyl) ring to a hydroxyl (-OH) group (hence the ''-ol'' suffix). The term "polyphenol" has been in use at least since 1894. Definition Polyphenols are natural products with "one or several hydroxyl groups on aromatic rings", including four principal classes: phenolic acids, flavonoids, stilbenes, and lignans. Flavonoids can be grouped as flavones, flavonols, flavanols, flavanones, isoflavones, proanthocyanidins, and anthocyanins. Particularly abundant flavanoids in foods are catechin (tea, frui ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Autumn Leaf Color
Autumn leaf color is a phenomenon that affects the normally green leaves of many deciduous trees and shrubs by which they take on, during a few weeks in the autumn season, various shades of yellow, orange, red, purple, and brown. The phenomenon is commonly called autumn colours or autumn foliage in British English and fall colors, fall foliage, or simply foliage in American English. In some areas of Canada and the United States, "leaf peeping" tourism is a major contribution to economic activity. This tourist activity occurs between the beginning of color changes and the onset of Deciduous#Botany, leaf fall, usually around September to November in the Northern Hemisphere and March to May in the Southern Hemisphere. Chlorophyll and the green/yellow/orange colors A green leaf is green because of the presence of a pigment known as chlorophyll, which is inside an organelle called a chloroplast. When abundant in the leaf's cell (biology), cells, as during the growing season, the c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Isoprene
Isoprene, or 2-methyl-1,3-butadiene, is a common volatile organic compound with the formula CH2=C(CH3)−CH=CH2. In its pure form it is a colorless volatile liquid. It is produced by many plants and animals (including humans) and its polymers are the main component of natural rubber. History and etymology Charles Greville Williams, C. G. Williams named the compound in 1860 after obtaining it from the pyrolysis of natural rubber. He correctly deduced the mass shares of carbon and hydrogen (but arrived at an incorrect formula C10H8 because the modern atomic weight of carbon was not adopted until the Karlsruhe Congress held later that year). He did not specify the reasons for the name, but it is hypothesized that it came from "propylene" with which isoprene shares some physical and chemical properties. The first one to observe recombination of isoprene into rubber-like substance was in 1879, and William A. Tilden identified its structure five years later. Natural occurrences Is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Tetraterpene
Tetraterpenes are terpenes consisting of eight isoprene units and have the molecular formula C40H64. Tetraterpenoids (including many carotenoids) are tetraterpenes that have been chemically modified, as indicated by the presence of oxygen-containing functional groups. Phytoene is biosynthesized via the head-to-head condensation of two GGPP molecules. One group of tetraterpenes, and possibly the most studied one, is the carotenoids pigments. Carotenoids have important biological functions, with roles in light capture, antioxidative activity and protection against free radicals, synthesis of plant hormones and as structural components of the membranes. Aside their biological relevance, carotenoids are also high-value compounds for the food and pharmaceutical industries. Carotenoids are biosynthesized by photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic organisms; however, in photosynthetic organisms, they are essential components as accessory pigments for the light-harvesting reaction cente ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
