If changes in between-population movements are studied, mean indi

If changes in between-population movements are studied, mean individual AZD1480 in vitro movement distances may well indicate the effect-distance, as individuals that live farther from the road than the mean individual movement distance will not likely

reach the road corridor and road mitigation measures. However, if genetic features are studied, individual movement distances are not suitable indicators for the effect-distance, as the genetic changes will diffuse from the local area adjacent to the road and indirectly affect the broader population over time. The same applies if population size/density is the selected measurement endpoint. In cases where little is known about the spatial extent of road or road mitigation effects, as will often be the case, or where cumulative effects of multiple roads are expected, sampling should be done at multiple spatial scales. Step 7: Select MK5108 chemical structure covariates to measure Sampling should not just be limited to the selected measurement endpoint. Other variables should also be measured to improve

interpretation of the results, provide better comparisons among study sites, and allow for stronger inferences concerning the causes of observed differences. We recommend documenting spatial (among sites, where BKM120 appropriate) and/or temporal (within sites over time, where appropriate) variability in: (1) road design and traffic, (2) crossing structure design and use, and (3) structural features of the surrounding landscape, all of which have been shown to influence the use of road mitigation measures (Clevenger and Waltho 2000; McDonald and St-Clair 2004; Ng et al. 2004; Clevenger and Waltho 2005; van Vuurde and van der Grift 2005; Ascensão and Mira 2007; Grilo et al. 2008). Road design covariates should include road width, road surface elevation (elevated road bed or road bed in cut), presence and type of pavement, presence and type of street lights, presence and type of fences, presence and type of noise screens, presence and width of median strip, presence and type of barriers

in the median strip, presence and width of road verges, and presence and type of vegetation in road verges. Traffic clonidine volume and speed should be documented at several temporal scales (e.g., daily, seasonally, annually). Road mitigation covariates should include size and characteristics of the crossing structures, the type and size of wildlife fences, passage use by the target species and non-target species, and presence and frequency of use by humans and domestic animals. Information on the duration of the construction period that marks the transition from the ‘before’ to the ‘after’ situation and the date that road mitigation measures were ready for use may also be important. Finally, landscape covariates should include the altitude, topography, land use, type and amount of vegetation and the occurrence of characteristic landscape elements (e.g.

The four proteins encoded by the mamXY operon may have a close re

The four proteins encoded by the mamXY operon may have a close relationship The qPCR results showed that the four genes in the mamXY operon were all highly expressed during the log phase of growth, supporting previous findings that the log phase is an essential period for MMP function and magnetosome synthesis [31]. The expression of mamZ was much higher than that of the other three genes at each of the sampling times (Figure 5; Table 2), indicating that mamZ plays

a crucial role during growth. MamZ is a highly hydrophobic protein with a predicted weight of 71.7 kDa and contains a major facilitator superfamily domain (predicted by PROSITE), a ferric reductase-like transmembrane component (Pfam; http://​pfam.​janelia.​org/​search), and up to 17 transmembrane helices (HMMTOP; http://​www.​enzim.​hu/​hmmtop). selleck chemicals It is therefore possible that MamZ is involved in ferric iron reduction, although there is no direct experimental evidence to date for such a function. The results of the relative qPCR assay indicated that deletion of mamX resulted in a notable increase in mamY and ftsZ-like transcription but had no effect on mamZ transcription. These findings suggest some redundancy among the functions of mamX, mamY, and ftsz-like. Application of the online tool STRING (http://​string-db.​org)

predicted VS-4718 mouse interactions among the four proteins encoded this website by the mamXY operon (Additional file 2: Figure S2). According to this predicted network view, the four MamXY proteins undergo intrinsic interactions with each other and are also associated

with certain proteins related to cell division (MGR-2076, MGR-3226, MGR-1090, MGR-2217) and to cell wall formation (MGR-0063, MGR-1112, MGR-1092, MGR-2078, MGRGRv1-0136, MGRGRv1-0133) through FtsZ-like. These associated proteins in strain AMB-1 have predicted functions similar to those in MSR-1(Additional file 3: Table S1). Further experiments are needed to test this model. Interestingly, the phenotypes of a mamX mutant, ftsZ-like mutant, and mamXY operon deleted mutant in MSR-1 are similar in that they produce magnetosomes that are small and irregularly shaped in comparison with those of WT [16, 18]. In view of the previous finding that MamGFDC Loperamide proteins have partially redundant and collective functions in controlling magnetosome size [11], and the results of the present study, we propose that the four genes in the mamXY operon have redundant functions involved in the complex process of magnetosome formation. A recent study showed that a single deletion of the mamAB operon in MSR-1 resulted in the complete loss of magnetosome synthesis, whereas deletion of the conserved mms6, mamGFDC, and mamXY operons led to severe defects in the morphology, size, and organization of magnetite crystals [16]. The MamP, MamS, MamR, and MamT proteins were shown to function in the regulation of crystal number, size, and shape [14].

For instance, wpgrp1 and tollip genes are good regulator candidat

For instance, wpgrp1 and tollip genes are good regulator candidates and they could play a crucial role in this inhibition [76, 84]. Recently, Ryu et al. [75] have reported that the Drosophila homeobox gene caudal also regulates the commensal-gut bacteria by repressing the nuclear factor Kappa B-dependent AMP genes. Ongoing RNAi experiments will provide more information about the function and the regulation of these pathways in the Sitophilus system. The high accumulation of transcripts from Rab7, Hrs and SNARE genes could be viewed as being due to intense endosomal trafficking

within the bacteriocyte. These genes are certainly very involved in vesicle synthesis and fusion [62–64]. Moreover, intense vesicle trafficking has already been observed by electronic SB431542 mouse microscopy within Sitophilus bacteriocytes [30]. Vesicle trafficking may aid in metabolic component exchanges between the host and the symbiont, or it may help in endosome fusion, with late endosomes and lysozomes, to favor autophagy. For the latter, we can speculate about the possibility that autophagy could serve as an additional host mechanism to regulate symbiont density. In support of this hypothesis, in silico cDNA comparison between symbiont-full and symbiont-free ovaries has shown

that vesicle trafficking is also highly represented in the presence of Wolbachia in the isopod Armadillidium vulgare [35]. Moreover, receptors of innate immunity have been identified on vertebrate endosome membranes [57, 87] and autophagy has been described as a possible means of eliminating intracellular pathogens [61]. To permanently sequester the GSK2126458 mw endosymbiont within the

bacteriome, and to avoid bacterial invasion into insect tissues, bacteriocyte cells need to maintain homeostasis and to see more survive during insect developmental stages. While apoptosis has been observed as a response to infection by a wide range of animal and plant pathogens [88, 89], very limited data are available on invertebrate symbiotic systems [70]. To tackle filipin this question in the Sitophilus system, we have analyzed genes potentially involved in apoptosis inhibition (iap2 and iap3) and apoptosis execution (caspase-like). We have shown that the high expression of apoptosis inhibitor genes paralleled the low amount of caspase-like gene transcripts in the bacteriome. In addition to the upregulation of genes involved in cell growth, such as Ras and leonardo 14-3-3, these preliminary data suggest that weevil bacteriocytes manage to survive an endosymbiont infection by inhibiting the apoptosis pathway. Inhibition of apoptosis can also be mediated by the expression of the FK506BP gene (or FKBP). In vertebrates, the FKBP38 gene inhibits apoptosis by interacting with Bcl-2 [90]. Moreover, we cannot exclude the possibility that apoptosis inhibition is manipulated by the symbiont for its own survival.

As shown in Figure 4, E2-increased HBO1 protein expression was si

As shown in Figure 4, E2-increased HBO1 protein expression was significantly suppressed by treatment with inhibitor of MEK1/2 (U0126) in T47 D (Figure 4A) and MCF-7 (Figure 4B) cells as analyzed by western blot. These results indicated that ERK1/2 signaling pathway was involved in the E2-induced HBO1 upregulation in breast cancer cells. Figure 4 E2 enhances HBO1 expression through ERK1/2 signaling pathways. (A) Serum-starved

T47 D cells were treated with E2 (10-8 M), or U0126 (10 uM) plus E2 (10-8 M) for 24 hours. Then equal amounts of protein (lysates) were subjected to SDS-PAGE. Western blot was performed using the Anti-phospho-ERK1/2 (Thr202/Tyr204), Selleck QNZ anti-HBO1 and anti-ERK1/2 antibodies. GAPDH was used as an internal control. (B) Serum-starved MCF-7 cells were treated with E2 (10-8 M), or U0126 (10 uM) plus E2 (10-8 M) for 24 hours. Western blot was performed as described in (A). Discussion HBO1 is a potential oncogene which maps to17q21.3, a region where frequent allelic gains are found in breast cancers INK1197 manufacturer and this amplification is associated with a poor prognosis of clinical outcome [14–16]. Previous

studies demonstrated over-expression of HBO1 dramatically enhanced the anchorage-independent growth of both MCF7 and SKBR3 breast cancer cells while depletion of HBO1 reduced the rate of DNA synthesis, the Enzalutamide amount of MCM complex bound Ribonuclease T1 to chromatin, and progression through S phase. HBO1 has also been shown to enhance transcription mediated by steroid receptors including ERα and PR [9]. However, little is known about the role of HBO1 in breast cancer and the underlying molecular mechanism. In this study, we first investigated the HBO1 protein expression in large

numbers of tumor samples of primary breast cancer (n = 112) by IHC analysis, and showed that HBO1 was highly expressed in breast cancer (Table 1) and positively correlated with ERα (p < 0.001) and PR (p = 0.002). Moreover, HBO1 protein level correlated positively with histology grade in ER positive tumors (p = 0.016) rather than ERα negative tumors through statistical analysis. As a coactivator of the replication licensing factor Cdt1 [17], HBO1 belongs to one component of the Replication Initiation Proteins known as prereplicative complex (pre-RC) proteins. Several pre-RC proteins are over-expressed in cancer and serve as good tumor markers. And some of them, such as Cdc6 and Cdt1, are elevated by E2 treatment in breast cancer. To determine whether HBO1 was also affected by E2, quantitative real-time PCR and western blot were performed. The results suggested HBO1 was elevated after E2 treatment. Further study demonstrated the E2-induced HBO1 upregulation could be inhibited by ICI 182,780 as well as ERα siRNA.

cremoris (3) 2   1                               1   P

cremoris (3) 2   1                               1   P. pentosaceus (16) 3 2 7         1 3                   1   W. cibaria (15) 2     6 5 1   1                     n.a. Tetracycline Lb. selleck screening library carnosus (2)             1 1                     8   Lb. curvatus Evofosfamide nmr (1)             1                       8   L. cremoris (3)         1 1 1                

      4   Lc. cremoris (3)             1 2                     8   P. pentosaceus (16)               1   13 2               8   W. cibaria (15)                 15                   n.a. Chloramphenicol Lb. carnosus (2)             1 1                     4   Lb. curvatus (1)               1                     4   L. cremoris (3)               1 2                   8   Lc. cremoris (3)               3                     4   P. pentosaceus (16)             1 5 10                   4   W. cibaria (15)                 15                   n.a. Neomycin Lb. carnosus (2)    

        1   1                   n.a.   Lb. curvatus (1)                 buy OSI-906 1                   n.a.   L. cremoris (3)         2   1                       n.a.   Lc. cremoris (3)         3                           n.a.   P. pentosaceus (16)         1     9 4 2                 n.a.   W. cibaria (15)         4   6 4   1                 n.a. Penicillin Lb. carnosus (2)               1 1                   n.a.   Lb. curvatus (1)         1                           n.a.   L. cremoris (3)         3                           n.a.   Lc. cremoris (3)       1 2                           n.a.   P. pentosaceus (16)           7 8 1                     n.a.   W. cibaria (15)             7 7   1                 n.a. Linezolid Lb. carnosus (2)             2                       n.a.   Lb. curvatus (1)               1                     n.a.   L. cremoris (3)             1 2                     n.a.   Lc. cremoris (3)           1 2                       n.a.   P. pentosaceus (16)               15 1                   n.a.   W. cibaria (15)               15          

          n.a. Ciprofloxacin Lb. carnosus (2)     Ibrutinib nmr           2                     n.a.   Lb. curvatus (1)                   1                 n.a.   L. cremoris (3)               2 1                   n.a.   Lc. cremoris (3)               1 2                   n.a.   P. pentosaceus (16)                       16             n.a.   W. cibaria (15)                 5 10                 n.a. Rifampicin Lb. carnosus (2)         1 1                         n.a.   Lb. curvatus (1)         1                           n.a.   L. cremoris (3)                     1 2             n.a.   Lc. cremoris (3)           1 2                       n.a.   P. pentosaceus (16)             2 13 1                   n.a.   W. cibaria (15)                   12 3               n.a. Trimethoprim Lb. carnosus (2)                       1   1         n.a.   Lb. curvatus (1)                   1                 n.a.   L. cremoris (3)                           3         n.a.   Lc.

Comparison of metabolite and gene expression profiles of C perfr

Comparison of metabolite and gene expression profiles of C. perfringens grown with cystine or homocysteine To obtain new insights into the regulation in response to sulfur availability, we compared the metabolome and the transcriptome of C. perfringens after growth in the presence of 0.5 mM cystine or 1 mM homocysteine. The doubling time was about two-fold higher for C. perfringens strain 13 grown in the presence of homocysteine than in the presence C646 concentration of cystine. Cystine allows efficient growth while homocysteine is a poor sulfur source for C. perfringens. This suggests that some metabolites are limiting during growth with homocysteine. So, we measured the

intracellular concentration of several sulfur compounds and amino acids by HPLC in crude extracts of strain 13 grown in the presence of cystine or homocysteine

(Fig. 3). The intracellular concentration of methionine remained undetectable learn more in both growth conditions. This suggests that methionine biosynthesis is not very efficient and/or that methionine requirements are high. Homocysteine can be detected only during growth with this compound suggesting that homocysteine was mainly taken up from outside under these conditions. Cystine, cysteine but also proline pools were below the threshold of detection during growth with homocysteine while their intracellular concentrations Adenosine triphosphate were 325 μM, 236 μM and 80 μM, respectively during growth with cystine. This strongly suggests that growth in the presence of homocysteine mimics conditions typically associated with cysteine limitation.

The concentration of alanine, lysine and serine and/or threonine differed to a lesser extent in these two conditions. Figure 3 Intracellular concentration of sulfur compounds (A) and amino acids (B) in strain 13 grown in the presence of cystine or homocysteine. Grey or white boxes indicate the metabolite concentrations extracted from strain 13 grown in the presence of 0.5 mM cystine or 1 mM homocysteine, respectively. The mean value of three independent experiments is presented. # indicates that the metabolite is not detectable. We further compared gene expression profiles of strain 13 grown in the presence of cystine or homocysteine. For this purpose, we designed a microarray containing oligonucleotides representative of 2706 genes of C. perfringens. For each condition, eight data sets generated with RNAs extracted from four independent cultures were used to Everolimus perform statistical analysis (see Methods). A total number of 177 genes were differentially expressed in these two conditions. Most of them (122 out of 177) were up-regulated in the presence of homocysteine. Some of the controlled genes including those associated with sulfur metabolism, redox functions, carbon metabolism and virulence are presented in Table 1.

It is known that Vero cells, a monkey kidney epithelial cell line

It is known that Vero cells, a monkey kidney epithelial cell line, is deficient for Interferon production [19]; thus, this cytokine group well known

to be capable of inducing in vitro persistence click here in Chlamydia pneumoniae [1], cannot be Selumetinib mw relevant for our co-infection persistence model. Co-infection experiments with ca-PEDV are best performed with Vero cells, as they have been shown to be permissive for viral replication in contrast to other cell lines such as PD5, PK 15, and HRT18 cell lines [9]. Specific measurements of primate cytokines in our co-infection model are planned in the future to elucidate the mechanism leading to chlamydial persistence. The Herpes simplex virus (HSV) co-induced Chlamydia trachomatis persistence model [15] has been recently been shown not to be mediated by any known persistence inducer or anti-chlamydial pathway recently [20, 21]. Instead, it was hypothesized by the authors that HSV-2 attachment and/or entry into the host cell is sufficient for stimulating chlamydial persistence, suggesting a potential novel

host signaling pathway could be responsible for inducing chlamydial persistence. A very recent publication by the same group showed that HSV replication is not necessary for persistence induction and that chlamydial activity could be recovered after co-infection with UV-inactivated HSV-2. Finally, it was concluded AP24534 in vivo that the interaction of HSV glycoprotein D with the host cell surface is crucial to trigger chlamydial persistence [22]. Female genital tract infection often has a complex etiology, where Chlamydia trachomatis is present together ID-8 with one or more genital agents. Epidemiological and clinical studies have shown that double infection with HSV-2 and Chlamydia trachomatis occurs in vivo; thus, the in vitro model described by Deka et al. (2006) [15] represents a realistic situation in human medicine. Similarities exist to the in vitro model established in this study as simultaneous intestinal infection with different pathogens is possible in swine in vivo. A recent

study [23] documented the occurrence of aberrant chlamydial bodies in vivo in intestinal tissues of pigs. In this study, aberrant bodies of Chlamydia suis were demonstrated and characterized in the gut of pigs experimentally infected with Salmonella typhimurium by transmission electron microscopy. It was concluded by Pospischil et al. [23] that aberrant bodies occur in vivo in pigs and that the gnotobiotic pig model might be suitable for the study of chlamydial persistence in vivo. Available intestinal tissues from experimentally infected gnotobiotic piglets (single infection and co-infection with Chlamydia and ca-PEDV, respectively) will be investigated in the future with the aim of further characterization of ABs in vivo.

This mutation resulted in the constitutive expression of this ope

This mutation resulted in the constitutive expression of this operon even under non-inductive conditions, suggesting that the

occurrence of high levels of DNA photolyase and nudix hydrolase in the cells prior to UV treatment conferred these cells with LEE011 mouse better resistance to this stress than wild type cells, which needed some time to synthesize those proteins. In order to exclude the possibility that the PCC9511 RAD001 strain used in our experiments possessed the point mutation described by Osburne and co-workers [68], we used the PCR primers defined by authors to amplify this region directly from cells collected from each duplicate culture of the HL and HL+UV experiments. In all cases, the sequences were the same as for the wild type (L. Garzarek and M. Ratin, unpublished data). It is noteworthy that Zinser and co-workers [14], who studied the diel variations of the whole transcriptome of L/D synchronized

MED4 cultures, observed a very different expression pattern for phrA as we did here (Fig. 7A), with an increase at night and a decrease during the day (see [69]). Since they used a moderate light irradiance, reaching only one fourth of our HL conditions at virtual noon (232 vs. 875 μmol photons m-2 s-1 in the present study), it is possible that high PAR conditions are needed to trigger the synthesis of the DNA photolyase. The uvrA gene showed an expression pattern very similar to that of phrA in both conditions. It encodes the DNA damage recognition component of the UvrABC system which in bacteria and archaea is involved in the nucleotide excision repair pathway (NER) [70]. This Stem Cells inhibitor pathway, which has Ribose-5-phosphate isomerase the ability to repair a wide range of structurally unrelated DNA lesions [71], is seemingly fully functional in P. marinus PCC9511, since it possesses conserved homologs of all three subunits of the UvrABC system. In Zinser and coworkers’ study [14], uvrA transcript levels showed a rapid increase at the beginning of the light period, remained at quasi

steady state during the rest of the day, then decreased at night (see [69]). This indicates that the uvrA system is also activated at moderate light, though it might not need to be adjusted as precisely to the ambient light as under HL. Another essential safeguard of genomic integrity in prokaryotes is the DNA mismatch repair (MMR) pathway, which removes base mispairings, unpaired bases, and small insertion or deletion loops in DNA by the concerted action of MutS-L-H repair proteins [72]. The genome of P. marinus MED4 contains one homolog of mutS, which in E. coli encodes the DNA damage recognition component of the MMR system. Transcript levels of mutS were the lowest at dawn, increased continuously during the light period and decreased at the beginning of the S phase, suggesting that expression of this gene could increase together with the accumulation of UV and/or reactive oxygen species-induced mutations to DNA.

Since top TCO is considered in this paper to be with 600 nm for e

Since top TCO is considered in this paper to be with 600 nm for electrical consideration unlike what we used in [14], a complete 1D nanopattern design similar to [14] is also performed. Optimized 1D design Selleckchem GSK1838705A yields J tot = 24.49 mA/cm2, which is apparently lower than that under 2D nanophotonic configuration (i.e., J tot approximately 27.72 mA/cm2 with an increment of 3.23 mA/cm2). This arises from the fact that more solar energy is coupled two-dimensionally into the resonant modes in the a-Si:H/μc-Si

active layers under a light-trapping mechanism with 2D photonic crystal [6]. Figure  2e,f is the (overall) absorption spectra (P abs) of the tandem TFSCs under Selleckchem CCI-779 various Λ y . It is obvious that the tandem cell has very good light absorption performance (except that absorbed by top TCO when λ < 400 nm) GNS-1480 nmr in the active band, especially within the band of 400 < λ < 700 nm. For the optimized design (b/Λ = 0.75, Λ x  = 520 nm, and Λ y  = 930 nm) from 2D RCWA, we turn to FEM calculation in order to get the detailed absorption distributions

in the tandem junctions. Absorption spectra for a-Si:H and μc-Si:H layers (i.e., P a-Si:H and P μc-Si:H) are plotted in Figure  3a, where TE, TM, unpolarized, and planar (wo) cases are considered. Compared to the 1D grating design [14], nanopatterning a-Si:H layer into 2D grating further improves the junction capability of harvesting the solar energy. Especially, P μc-Si:H under either TE or TM incidence is dramatically strengthened, e.g., P abs = 71.61% for TE (5.402% for wo) at λ = 886 nm and 79.85% for TM (5.121% for wo) at 902 nm. In addition, there are much more resonant peaks in the spectrum due to the strong cavity effects and the presence of a great deal of diffraction modes excited from the 2D grating. This can be very

beneficial to realize a broadband absorption enhancement. For the top junction, 2D grating also improves the light absorption than 1D case, resulting in a maximized J tot as discussed previously. Figure 3 EQE spectra. P abs and EQE spectra of a-Si:H/μc-Si tandem TFSCs with b/Λ = 0.75, Λ x  = 520 nm, and Λ y  = 930 nm, where a 18-nm ZnO layer is sandwiched by two junctions in (b) (noted: no ZnO layer in (a)). In Figures 3 and 4, ellipses are Farnesyltransferase used to categorize the simulation results. To evaluate the electrical response of each junction, a device simulation which couples both optical absorption and carrier transport are performed [17, 18]. P/i/n setup is assumed for both junctions with p/n doping concentration of 1.3 × 1017/4.3 × 1016 cm−3 and thickness of 10/30 nm (the rest is intrinsic region). Electron (hole) mobility in p/i/n region for top junction is 4.6/4.6/100 (50/0.92/0.92) × 10−6 m2/V/s [17] and carrier mobility 100 times over those in top junction are used for the μc-Si:H junction.

The results have not been used yet for describing the energy tran

The results have not been used yet for describing the energy transfer properties, but it was concluded that the concentration of low-energy exciton states in the antenna is larger

on one side of the RC, implying asymmetric delivery of excitation energy to the RC (Adolphs et al. 2010). The authors also proposed experiments to verify their calculations/predictions. Sener et al. (2002) also simulated EET transfer in PSI from Thermosynechococcus elongatus using a Förster-type approach and concluded that the overall transfer process does not depend very much on room-temperature fluctuations of the site energies, which were all chosen to fluctuate around a common average value. Damjanovic et al. (2002) performed quantum-chemical calculations that showed substantial variations of the site energies of the Chls in PSI, OICR-9429 chemical structure leading to an overall absorption spectrum that was in reasonable agreement with the experimental one. However, these values did

not lead to substantial changes in the overall BTSA1 purchase I-BET151 diffusion time of excitations according to Sener et al. (2002). A very insightful modeling study is the one of Yang et al. (2003) in which excitonic interactions are not only used to calculate steady-state spectroscopic properties but are also included to model the excitation dynamics. The authors find that spectral and spatial equilibration outside the RC both occur within 5 ps, whereas the excitation transfer to the primary

donor P700 is responsible for the largest Thiamet G contribution to the trapping time. Omitting the linker pigments in the simulations leads to somewhat slower transfer to the RC, but the overall trapping time is not changed substantially. Interestingly, the transfer from the antenna to P700 proceeds to a large extent via the other Chls in the RC and omitting those from the simulations slows down the transfer to P700 considerably. It is concluded that the combination of linker and RC pigments form a quasi-funnel structure that is highly optimized for efficient trapping. This trapping process is preceded by ultrafast “equilibration” in the antenna (within 5 ps), leading to a so-called transfer equilibrium state, and is followed by charge separation with a time constant between 0.9 and 1.7 ps. However, the actual value of the latter time constant does not influence the overall trapping time to a large extent, in contrast to the situation in trap-limited models. It should, however, be mentioned that not everyone agrees with these results; Muller et al. (2003) have for instance presented a transient absorption study in which it was concluded that charge separation in PSI with red forms is trap-limited. However, we are not aware of any theoretical studies so far that have been able to support this conclusion.