Latest microscopy research looks at Brewster angle with Cyt.b6f

Brewster's angle - the angle at which light is perfectly transmitted through a surface without reflection - is the subject of the latest microscopy news from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

The research facility explains that Brewster angle microscopy, or BAM, has long been used to visualise the morphology of surface films on an aqueous subphase.

In its latest microscopy experiments, the institution has been doing just that, looking at the changes that take place at the interface of air and water when the cytochrome b6f protein complex is present.

Adding the complex causes significant changes in surface morphology compared with a monolayer of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) without the protein present, they discovered.

They add that their findings suggest a more packed structure develops at the surface with b6f present than with DPPC alone.

Cyt.b6f can be derived from poplar extracts; the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences recently outlined an "elegant and easy" means of doing this using ion-exchange chromatography and subsequent filtering and purification.