accessory pigment any of the pigments, such as the yellow, red, or purple carotenoids and the red or blue phycobiliproteins in photosynthetic cells. The carotenoids are always present, whereas the phycobiliproteins occur only in algae belonging to the Rhodophyceae, the Cyanophyceae, and the Cryptophyceae. Strictly speaking, chlorophyll b is also an accessory pigment.

ACC oxidase an enzyme present in plant tissues that catalyses the Fe2+– and ascorbate-dependent oxidation of 1-aminocyclopropane-1- carboxylic acid (ACC) to ethylene, CO2, HCN, and H2O. It is a highly unstable monomer (35 kDa) that is inhibited by Co2+. Its activity increases under conditions of stress and at certain developmental stages (e.g. during fruit ripening).

accession number a systematic (computer-readable) number or code that uniquely identifies an entry in a particular database. Accession numbers are assigned when entries are first added to a database and should remain static between updates, providing a reliable means of locating them in subsequent releases. For example, P02699 identifies bovine rhodopsin in the Swiss-Prot database,