Isolated photosynthetic reaction center from the bacterium Rhodospirillum rubrum was extracted with acetone-methanol. Its main pigments were identified as bacteriochlorophyll, bacteriopheophytin, and spirilloxanthin. The extinction coefficients of these pigments in acetone-methanol were determined. Quantitative spectroscopic analysis of the dry acetone-methanol extracts indicated a bacteriochlo...

The carbon monoxide dehydrogenase from the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodospirillum rubrum was purified over 600-fold by DEAE-cellulose chromatography, heat treatment, hydroxylapatite chromatography, and preparative scale gel electrophoresis. In vitro, this enzyme catalyzed a two-electron oxidation of CO to form CO2 as the product. The reaction was dependent on the addition of an electron accept...

Enzymes of the reductive pentose phosphate cycle including ribulose-diphosphate carboxylase, ribulose-5-phosphate kinase, ribose-5-phosphate isomerase, aldolase, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase and alkaline fructose-1,6-diphos-phatase were shown to be present in autotrophically grown Rhodospirillum rubrum. Enzyme levels were measured in this organism grown photo- and dark heterotrophic...

Observations from a number of different experimental approaches have implicated cytochrome pigments in oxidation-reduction reactions resulting from the illumination of photosynthetic tissues (l-6). Possible relationships of these cytochromes to those of the respiratory chain pigments which react with oxygen in the dark have been considered. Vernon (7) isolated a soluble cytochrome in good yield...

Owing to the considerable current interest in replacing fossil fuels with solar radiation as a clean, renewable, and secure energy source, light-driven electron transport in natural photosynthetic systems offers a valuable blueprint for conversion of sunlight to useful energy forms. In particular, intracytoplasmic membrane vesicles (chromatophores) from the purple bacterium Rhodospirillum rubru...