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Photoeffects in a flavin-containing lipid bilayer membrane and implications for algal phototaxis

Abstract

FLAVINS have been implicated as receptor pigments in various plant photoresponses, such as phototropism1, phototaxis2 and chloroplast movement3. It has not yet been possible to prove conclusively the flavin photoreceptor hypothesis in any of these cases, nor has a mechanism been demonstrated by which a flavin could convert a light stimulus into a physiological signal. For the light-induced motor responds involved in phototaxis of Euglena, we have suggested an electrical type of stimulus transduction by a flavin receptor pigment embedded in a lipid matrix4.

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FROEHLICH, O., DIEHN, B. Photoeffects in a flavin-containing lipid bilayer membrane and implications for algal phototaxis. Nature 248, 802–804 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1038/248802a0

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