Comments+on+Pigment+Projects

The spectrophotometers give us the ability to examine pigments. In addition, pigments can often be separated using paper or thin layer chromatography. WSU also has a variety of analytical tools should we get something interesting.

Why are fresh evergreen fronds a lighter green than mature leaves? Less chlorophyll or carotenoids? Many bacterial, fungal, and flower pigments likely have not been examined. Have all of the colors in bird feathers, crops, and feet been defined? Description of pigments in an organism not examined is one option.

Another is to follow pigment changes with changing conditions or culture/creature development. For instance, the reddening of Serratia in culture has been examined. Several of our Salt Plains microbes become more colored with time in culture and appear to change color with changes in salt concentrations.

One place to start here is with either PubMed searches, or perhaps more easily Google Scholar searches. Go through a book of common houseplants or garden plants and perform searches using their scientific names with the keyword pigments. For instance I found that there is nothing scholarly on Mother-In-Laws Tongue. Also, note that many of the reports out there on pigments is from the 40's and 50's. We might be able to do a little more today.