Light absorption and the subsequent transfer of excitation energy are the first two steps of the photosynthetic process, carried out by protein-bound pigments, mainly bacteriochlorophylls (BChls), in photosynthetic bacteria. BChls are anchored in light-harvesting (LH) complexes, such as light-harvesting complex I (LH1), which directly associates with the reaction center (RC), forming the RC-LH1...

A pale-green mutant strain of Chlamydomonas reinhardi, ac-31, is characterized by the absence of any stacking of its chloroplast membranes. The capacity for photosynthetic electron transport, phosphorylation, and CO(2) fixation in ac-31 is substantial, and it is concluded that these photosynthetic activities occur within the single membrane. The photosynthetic capacities of wild type and ac-31 ...

BACKGROUND There is accumulating evidence that in some marine environments aerobic bacteriochlorophyll a-producing bacteria represent a significant part of the microbial population. The interaction of photosynthesis and carbon metabolism in these interesting bacteria is still largely unknown and requires further investigation in order to estimate their contribution to the marine carbon cycle. ...

It is well established that assembly of the peripheral antenna complex, LH2, is required for proper photosynthetic membrane biogenesis in the purple bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides. The underlying interactions are, as yet, not understood. Here we examined the relationship between the morphology of the photosynthetic membrane and the lipid-protein interactions at the LH2-lipid interface. The n...

A mutant of Arabidopsis thaliana, deficient in activity of the chloroplast n-6 desaturase, accumulated high levels of C(16:1) and C(18:1) lipids and had correspondingly reduced levels of polyunsaturated lipids. The altered lipid composition of the mutant had pronounced effects on chloroplast ultrastructure, thylakoid membrane protein and chlorophyll content, electron transport rates, and the th...

Photosynthetic thylakoid membranes in plants contain highly folded membrane layers enriched in photosystem II, which uses light energy to oxidize water and produce oxygen. The sunlight also causes quantitative phosphorylation of major photosystem II proteins. Analysis of the Arabidopsis thaliana stn7xstn8 double mutant deficient in thylakoid protein kinases STN7 and STN8 revealed light-independ...

Cells of Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides were grown anaerobically with incident light levels ranging between 4,500 and 400 footcandles (ca. 48,420 and 4,304 lux). Cells grown with the higher light levels had lower contents of total bacteriochlorophyll and incorporated L-[U-14C]leucine into membrane protein at higher rates than cells grown with lower light levels. The former cells also contained re...