Abstract
Mutants having an abnormal photosystem stoichiometry had been effectively isolated by chlorophyll fluorescence induction kinetics from the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. Thus, the kinetics is expected to be a valuable clue to predict function of gene. The change of kinetics could be described as vectors, since the changes are defined by both magnitude and direction. Addition of inhibitors brought about changes on the kinetics by concentration-depending manner, and the pattern of the change in the kinetics varied with different inhibitors. Thus, the length of the vectors represents the extent of the change while the direction of the vectors could be used as an index of the mode of inhibition. When we picked up the mutants with an abnormal photosystem stoichiometry, the phenotypic vectors fell into a certain range of direction. The results suggest that the direction of the phenotypic vectors closely correlate with the function of genes.
