Abstract
Action spectroscopy — the measurement, as a function of wavelength, of the sensitivity of a particular biological response or effect — is a standard approach towards identifying receptor pigment(s) for photobiological phenomena (Jagger, 1967; Shropshire, 1972; Hartmann, 1983; Schäfer et al., 1983; Schafer and Fukshansky, 1984; Galland, 1987). Comparison of an action spectrum with absorption spectra of known pigments often reveals the identity of the pigment, or class of pigments, involved. Some action spectra simply show the magnitude of a response as a function of wavelength, under conditions where a standard photon fluence (or fluence rate) is applied in all measurements. The difficulty with this expedient approach is that the response may well depend nonlinearly on the fluence. Such nonlinearity can introduce severe distortion into an action spectrum obtained in this way. The preferred method, instead, is to measure a separate fluence-response curve for each wavelength of interest, and then to determine the photon fluence needed to elicit a standard response level, for example 50% of maximum response. The reciprocal of the requisite photon fluence represents the sensitivity of the system, and is used as the ordinate of the action spectrum.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Alvarez, M. I., Eslava, A. P., and Lipson, E. D., 1989, Phototropism mutants of Phycomyces blakesleeanus isolated at low light intensity, Exp. Mycol., 13:38.
Baskin, T. I., and Iino, M., 1987, An action spectrum in the blue and ultraviolet for phototropism in alfalfa, Photochem. Photobiol., 46:127.
Bejarano, E. R., Avalos, J., Lipson, E. D., and Cerdá-Olmedo, E., 1991, Photoinduced accumulation of carotene in Phycomyces, Planta, in press.
Bergman, K., Eslava, A. P., and Cerdá-Olmedo, E., 1973, Mutants of Phycomyces with abnormal phototropism, Mol. Gen. Genet., 123:1.
Bevington, P. R., 1969, “Data Reduction and Error Analysis for the Physical Sciences,” McGraw-Hill, New York.
Corrochano, L. M., Galland, P., Lipson, E. D., and Cerdá-Olmedoi, E., 1988, Photomorphogenesis in Phycomyces: fluence-response curves and action spectra, Planta, 174:315.
Ensminger, P. A., Chen, X., and Lipson, E. D., 1990, Action spectra for photogravitropism of Phycomyces wild type and three behavioral mutants (L150, L152, and L154), Photochem. Photobiol., 51:681.
Ensminger, P. A., and Lipson, E. D., 1991, Action spectra of the light-growth response in three behavioral mutants of Phycomyces, Planta, in press.
Ensminger, P. A., Schaefer, H. R., and Lipson, E. D., 1991, Action spectra of the light-growth response of Phycomyces, Planta, in press.
Foster, K., Saranak, J., Derguini, F., Jayathirtha, V., Zarrilli, G., Okabe, M., Fang, J.-M., Shimizu, N., and Nakanishi, K., 1988a, Rhodopsin activation: a novel view suggested by in vivo Chlamydomonas experiments, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 110:6588.
Foster, K., Saranak, J., Derguini, F., Zarilli, G., Johnson, R., Okabe, M., and Nakanishi, K., 1989, Activation of Chlamydomonas rhodopsin in vivo does not require isomerization of retinal, Biochemistry, 28:819.
Foster, K. W., Saranak, J., and Dowben, P. A., 1990, Spectral sensitivity, structure, and activation of eukaryotic rhodopsins: activation spectroscopy of rhodopsin analogs in Chlamydomonas, J. Photochem. Photobiol B:Biol., in press.
Foster, K. W., Saranak, J., Patel, N., Zarilli, G., Okabe, M., Kline, T., and Nakanishi, K., 1984, A rhodopsin is the functional protoreceptor for phototaxis in the unicellular eukaryote Chlamydomonas, Nature, 311:756.
Foster, K., Saranak, J., and Zarrilli, G., 1988b, Autoregulation of rhodopsin in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 85:6379.
Foster, K. W., and Smyth, R. D., 1980, Light antennas in phototactic algae, Microbiol Rev., 44:572.
Galland, P., 1987, Action spectroscopy, in: “Blue Light Responses: Phenomena and Occurrence in Plants and Microorganisms,” Senger, H., ed., CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, p. 37.
Galland, P., and Lipson, E. D., 1985a, Action spectra for phototropic balance in Phycomyces blakesleeanus: dependence on reference wavelength and intensity range, Photochem. Photobiol., 41:323.
Galland, P., and Lipson, E. D., 1985b, Modified action spectra of photogeotropic equilibrium in Phycomyces blakesleeanus mutants with defects in genes madA, madB, madC, and madH, Photochem. Photobiol., 41:331.
Galland, P., and Lipson, E. D., 1987, Blue-light reception in Phycomyces phototropism: evidence for two photosystems operating in low- and high-intensity ranges, Proc. Natl. Acad Sci. USA, 84:104.
Galland, P., Orejas, M., and Lipson, E. D., 1989, Light-controlled adaptation kinetics in Phycomyces: evidence for a novel yellow-light absorbing pigment, Photochem. Photobiol., 49:493.
Galland, P., and Senger, H., 1988a, The role of flavins as photoreceptors, J. Photochem. PhotobioL BiBiol., 1:277.
Galland, P., and Senger, H., 1988b, The role of pterins in the photoreception and metabolism of plants, Photochem. Photobiol., 48:811.
Grossweiner, L. I., 1989, Photophysics, in: “The Science of Photobiology,” Smith, K. C., ed., Plenum Press, New York, p. 1.
Hamilton, W. C., 1964, “Statistics in Physical Science,” Ronald Press, New York.
Hartmann, K. M., 1983, Action spectroscopy, in: “Biophysics,” Hoppe, W., Lohmann, W., Markl, H., and Ziegler, H., eds., Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, p. 115.
Jagger, J., 1967, “Introduction to Research in Ultraviolet Photobiology,” Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Lipson, E. D., and Presti, D., 1980, Graphical estimation of cross sections from fluence-response data, Photochem. Photobiol., 32:383.
Lipson, E. D., and Terasaka, D. T., 1981, Photogeotropism in Phycomyces double mutants, Exp. Mycol., 5:101.
Naka, K. I., and Rushton, W. A. H., 1966, S-potentials from colour units in the retina of fish (Cyprinidae), J. Physiol., 185:536.
Nultsch, W., Throm, G., and von Rimscha, I., 1971, Phototaktische Untersuchungen an Chlamydomonas reinhardtii Dangeard in homokontinuierlicher Kultur, Arch. Microbiol., 90:47.
Ootaki, T., Fischer, E. P., and Lockhart, P., 1974, Complementation between mutants of Phycomyces with abnormal phototropism, Mol. Gen. Genet., 131:233.
Press, W. H., Flannery, B. P., Teukolsky, S. A., and Vetterling, W. T., 1985, “Numerical Recipes,” Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England.
Presti, D. E., and Galland, P., 1987, Photoreceptor biology of Phycomyces, in: “Phycomyces,” Cerdá-Olmedo, E., and Lipson, E. D., eds., Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, p. 93.
Presti, D., Hsu, W. J., and Delbrück, M., 1977, Phototropism in Phycomyces mutants lacking ß-carotene, Photochem. Photobiol., 26:403.
Schafer, E., and Fukshansky, L., 1984, Action spectroscopy, in: “Techniques in Photomorphogenesis,” Smith, H., and Holmes, M. G., eds., Academic Press, London, p. 109.
Schäfer, E., Fukshansky, L., and Shropshire, W., Jr., 1983, Action spectroscopy of photoreversible pigment systems, in: “Encyclopedia of Plant Physiology”, New Series, Vol. 16 A,B, “Photomorphogenesis,” Shropshire, W., Jr., and Mohr, H., eds., Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, p. 39.
Schmid, R., Idziak, E.-M., and Tünnermann, M., 1987, Action spectrum for the blue-light-dependent morphogenesis of hair whorls in Acetabularia mediterranea,Planta, 171:96.
Senger, H., ed., 1980, “The Blue Light Syndrome,” Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York.
Senger, H., ed., 1984, “Blue Light Effects in Biological Systems,” Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York.
Senger, H., ed., 1987, “Blue Light Responses: Phenomena and Occurrence in Plants and Microorganisms,” Vol. I and II, CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida.
Shropshire, W., Jr., 1972, Action spectroscopy, in: “Phytochrome,” Mitrakos, K., and Shropshire, W., Jr., eds., Academic Press, London, p. 162.
Smyth, R. D., Saranak, J., and Foster, K. W., 1988, Algal visual systems and their photoreceptor pigments, Prog. Phycol. Res., 6:225.
Stoeckenius, W., Wolff, E., and Hess, B., 1988, A rapid population method for action spectra applied to Halobacterium halobium, J. Bact., 170:2790.
Trad, C. H., and Lipson, E. D., 1987, Biphasic fluence-response curves and derived action spectra for light-induced absorbance changes in Phycomyces mycelium, J.Photochem. Photobiol. B:Biol., 1:169.
Williams, T. P., and Gale, J. G., 1978, “Compression” of retinal responsivity: V-log I functions and increment thresholds, in: “Visual Psychophysics and Physiology,” Armington, J. C., ed., Academic Press, New York, p. 129.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1991 Plenum Press, New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lipson, E.D. (1991). Action Spectroscopy. In: Lenci, F., Ghetti, F., Colombetti, G., Häder, DP., Song, PS. (eds) Biophysics of Photoreceptors and Photomovements in Microorganisms. NATO ASI Series, vol 211. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-5988-3_24
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-5988-3_24
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4684-5990-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4684-5988-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive