Biophysical Journal 1: 377-388 (1961)
© 1961 the Biophysical Society

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Studies on the Second Emerson Effect in the Hill Reaction in Algal Cells

ABSTRACT

This paper shows that the "second Emerson effect"¹ exists not only in photosynthesis, but also in the quinone reduction (Hill reaction), in Chlorella pyrenoidosa and Anacystis nidulans. The peaks at 650 mµ, 600 mµ, 560 mµ, 520 mµ, and 480 mµ, observed in the action spectrum of this effect in the Hill reaction in Chorella, are attributable to chlorophyll b; the occurrence of an additional peak at 670 mµ, 620 mµ, and of two (or three) peaks in the blueviolet region suggests that (at least) one form of chlorophyll a contributes to it. In analogy to suggestions made previously in the interpretation of the Emerson effect in photosynthesis, these results are taken as indicating that excitation by light preferentially absorbed by one (or two) forms of chlorophyll a (Chl a 690 + 700), needs support by simultaneous absorption of light in another form of chlorophyll a (Chl a 670)—directly or via energy transfer from chlorophyll b—in order to produce the Hill reaction with its full quantum yield. In Anacystis, the participation of phycocyanin in the Emerson effect in the Hill reaction is revealed by the occurrence, in the action spectrum of this effect, of peaks at about 560 mµ, 610 mµ, and 640 mµ; a peak at 670 mµ, due to Chl a 670, also is present.