This report presents some new methodological opportunities that biophysics can offer for solving the fundamental problem of planetary ecology-deciphering the mechanism that maintains the equilibrium state of the biosphere. The Institute of Biophysics, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, where the author of this report works, is developing two complementary directions in ecological biophysics. The first is monitoring the vital activity of natural and constructed ecosystems by optical methods using the example of bioluminescence of the sea and closed ecosystems, and the second is studying the laws of parametric biosynthesis control and creating biotechnological control systems for these processes in order to construct noosphere-like ecosystems, in particular, for human life-support and survival systems in extreme conditions on the Earth and in space.

Определили структуру оксилюциферина грибов, провели ферментативную реакцию биолюминесценции в условиях насыщения по субстрату с дискретным мониторингом образующихся продуктов и установили структуры конечных продуктов реакции. На основе этих исследований разработали схему деградации оксилюциферина до конечных продуктов. Структуру оксилюциферина грибов подтвердили встречным синтезом.

The biodegradation patterns of two types of PHA, a 3-hydroxybutyrate (3-PHB) polymer and a 3-hydroxybutyrate and 3-hydroxyvalerate (3-PHB/3-PHV) copolymer, were studied in tropical marine environments (Dam Bay, South China Sea, Nha Trang, Vietnam). No reliable differences in the degradation of 3-PHB and 3-PHB/3-PHV were revealed. It was shown that the degradation process depended mainly on the shape of a polymer product and its production method: the degradation of polymer films was found to be more active than that of molded solids. A decrease in the molecular mass of both types of PHA was detected in the course of the degradation of PHA samples. However, the degree of PHA crystallinity did not change; that is, the levels of degradation of both the amorphous and crystalline phases of PHA were almost the same. Among microbial PHA degraders, three bacterial strains, Bacillus sp. IBP-V002, Enterobacter cloacae sp. IBP-V001, and Gracilibacillus sp. IBP-V003, were identified based on the results of morphological, biochemical, and molecular phylogenetic analyses. The ability of the representatives of the genera Gracilibacillus and Enterobacter to degrade PHA was revealed for the first time.