The Multiple Roles of Various Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) in Photosynthetic Organisms

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview on recent developments and current knowledge about monitoring, generation and the functional role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) - H2O2, HO2, HO, OH-, 1O2 and O2 - - in both oxidative degradation and signal transduction in photosynthetic organisms including a summary of important mechanisms of nonphotochemical quenching in plants. We further describe microscopic techniques for ROS detection and controlled generation. Reaction schemes elucidating formation, decay and signaling of ROS in cyanobacteria as well as from chloroplasts to the nuclear genome in eukaryotes during exposure of oxygen-evolving photosynthetic organisms to oxidative stress are discussed that target the rapidly growing field of regulatory effects of ROS on nuclear gene expression. © 2016 Scrivener Publishing LLC. All rights reserved.