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Updated: Jul 14, 2026

Using Changes in Leaf Transmission to Investigate Chloroplast Movement in Arabidopsis thaliana
Published on: July 14, 2021
Chemical basis of plant leaf movement
1Department of Chemistry, Tohoku University, Aramakiaza-Aoba 6-3, Aoba-ku, Sendai, 980-8578 Japan. ueda@mail.tains.tohoku.ac.jp
Abstract:
Nyctinastic plants open and close leaves with a circadian rhythm. Here we discuss chemical aspects of the mechanism of nyctinastic leaf movement. Nyctinastic plants from five different genera are known to contain species-specific leaf-opening and leaf-closing factors. The relative concentrations of leaf-closing and leaf-opening factors of the nyctinastic plant Phyllanthus urinaria change circadianly, suggesting that nyctinastic movement is regulated by two classes of circadianly regulated factors with opposing functions. A closing and an opening factor of Albizzia, when linked to a fluorescent dye, both specifically labeled motor cells of pluvini. A membrane fraction of pluvini contains proteins of 210 and 180 kDa that bind to a leaf-opening factor of Cassia mimosoides. The molecular identification of these proteins is underway.
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