27 research outputs found
High efficiency dark-to-bright exciton conversion in carbon nanotubes
We report that dark excitons can have a large contribution to the emission
intensity in carbon nanotubes due to an efficient exciton conversion from a
dark state to a bright state. Time-resolved photoluminescence measurements are
used to investigate decay dynamics and diffusion properties of excitons, and we
obtain intrinsic lifetimes and diffusion lengths of bright excitons as well as
diffusion coefficients for both bright and dark excitons. We find that the
dark-to-bright transition rates can be considerably high, and that more than
half of the dark excitons can be transformed into the bright excitons. The
state transition rates have a large chirality dependence with a family pattern,
and the conversion efficiency is found to be significantly enhanced by adsorbed
air molecules on the surface of the nanotubes. Our findings show the nontrivial
significance of the dark excitons on the emission kinetics in low dimensional
materials, and demonstrate the potential for engineering the dark-to-bright
conversion process by using surface interactions.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
Plastidial Starch Phosphorylase in Sweet Potato Roots Is Proteolytically Modified by Protein-Protein Interaction with the 20S Proteasome
Post-translational regulation plays an important role in cellular metabolism. Earlier studies showed that the activity of plastidial starch phosphorylase (Pho1) may be regulated by proteolytic modification. During the purification of Pho1 from sweet potato roots, we observed an unknown high molecular weight complex (HX) showing Pho1 activity. The two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, mass spectrometry, and reverse immunoprecipitation analyses showed that HX is composed of Pho1 and the 20S proteasome. Incubating sweet potato roots at 45Β°C triggers a stepwise degradation of Pho1; however, the degradation process can be partially inhibited by specific proteasome inhibitor MG132. The proteolytically modified Pho1 displays a lower binding affinity toward glucose 1-phosphate and a reduced starch-synthesizing activity. This study suggests that the 20S proteasome interacts with Pho1 and is involved in the regulation of the catalytic activity of Pho1 in sweet potato roots under heat stress conditions