JXB Advance Access published online on September 16, 2008
Journal of Experimental Botany, doi:10.1093/jxb/ern230
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© 2008 The Author(s).
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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RESEARCH PAPER |
Light absorption by anthocyanins in juvenile, stressed, and senescing leaves
1Department of Physiology of Microorganisms, Faculty of Biology, Moscow State University, 119991, GSP-1 Moscow, Russia
2Department of Physics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, N-7491, Norway
* To whom correspondence should be addressed: E-mail: m_merzlyak{at}mail.ru
The optical properties of leaves from five species, Norway maple (Acer platanoides L.), cotoneaster (Cotoneaster alaunica Golite), hazel (Corylus avellana L.), Siberian dogwood (Cornus alba L.), and Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia (L.) Planch.), differing in pigment composition and at different stages of ontogenesis, were studied. Anthocyanin absorption maxima in vivo, as estimated with spectrophotometry of intact anthocyanic versus acyanic leaves and microspectrophotometry of vacuoles in the leaf cross-sections, were found between 537 nm and 542 nm, showing a red shift of 5–20 nm compared with the corresponding maxima in acidic water–methanol extracts. In non-senescent leaves, strong anthocyanin absorption was found between 500 nm and 600 nm (with a 70–80 nm apparent bandwidth). By and large, absorption by anthocyanin in leaves followed a modified form of the Lambert–Beer law, showing a linear trend up to a content of nearly 50 nmol cm–2, and permitting thereby a non-invasive determination of anthocyanin content. The apparent specific absorption coefficients of anthocyanins at 550 nm showed no substantial dependence on the species. Anthocyanin contribution to total light absorption at 550 nm was followed in maple leaves in the course of autumn senescence. Photoprotection by vacuolar anthocyanins is discussed with special regard to their distribution within a leaf; radiation screening by anthocyanins predominantly localized in the epidermal cells in A. platanoides and C. avellana leaves was also evaluated.
Key words: Absorption, anthocyanins, carotenoids, chlorophyll, leaves, light screening, photoprotection
Received 20 March 2008; Revised 12 May 2008 Accepted 12 August 2008
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