ABSTRACT
C-phycocyanin (C-PC) was extracted from fresh Spirulina platensis by deploying a species of non-pathogenic nitrogen-fixing bacteria, namely, Klebsiella pneumoniae. The algal slurry was neither washed nor centrifuged; the bacterial culture was poured into the slurry, the vessel sealed, and crude C-PC extracted after about 24 h. The extraction was clean and efficient, and the purity and concentration of C-PC proved to be of adequate quality.
Subject(s)
Bacterial Proteins/chemistry , Bacteriolysis , Klebsiella pneumoniae/growth & development , Phycocyanin/isolation & purification , Spirulina/chemistry , Spirulina/physiology , Culture Media , Freezing , Glass , Industrial Microbiology/methods , Klebsiella pneumoniae/physiology , Microspheres , Muramidase/metabolism , Nitrogen Fixation , Sonication , Spirulina/growth & developmentABSTRACT
Photosynthetic rates in different development stages were carefully investigated in 18 cultivars of winter wheat released in the period between 1945 and 1995 in the area of Beijing, China. During this period, the recorded grain yield has increased eightfold. However, when those cultivars were planted and managed in the same environment, the difference was reduced to only 36%, indicating that agronomic practices are the most important factors for grain yield. Agronomic features have changed greatly in the past 50 years, through increasing the harvest index (R2 = 0.89, P < 0.05), shortening plant height (R2 = 0.77, P < 0.05) and slightly increasing flag leaf areas (R2 = 0.45, P < 0.05), which is mostly in agreement with many other researchers. In contrast to many reports, however, this study found a genetic increase in the rate of photosynthesis per unit leaf area. From the mid-stem elongation to soft dough stages, the average photosynthetic rates at saturated photosynthetic photon flux density (P(sat)) increased by 44%. In the process, the stomatal conductance (g(s)) also increased by 122%. Grain yield was positively related to the mean values of P(sat) (R2 = 0.61, P < 0.01) and g(s) (R2 = 0.67, P < 0.01) in the six development stages. Our experiment may suggest that increase in grain yield was associated with the elevation of leaf photosynthetic rate and stomatal conductance over the past 50 years.
