1. The stoicheiometry of the photo-oxidation of succinate by chromatophores has been investigated with [2,3-(14)C(2)]succinate. It was found that there is a stoicheiometric relationship between the amount of succinate oxidized and the NAD reduced, and that fumarate is the only product of succinate oxidation. 2. The possibility of a direct hydrogen transfer from succinate to NAD in this reaction...

Comparative studies on isolated chromatophores and on sectioned cells of the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodospirillum rubrum confirm the assumption expressed in earlier investigations that the photochemically active chromatophores isolated from disrupted cells represent structural chlorophyll-bearing components of the protoplast. Actively growing cells from light-grown cultures about 12 hours ol...

We have measured low-intensity, polarized one-color pump-probe traces in the B800 band of the light-harvesting complex LH2 of Rhodospirillum molischianum at 77 K. The excitation/detection wavelength was tuned through the B800 band. A single-wavelength and a global target analysis of the data were performed with a model that accounts for excitation energy transfer among the B800 molecules and fr...

The Athiorhodaceae are photosynthetic bacteria which grow anaerobically on media containing any one of a number of organic compounds, plus carbon dioxide and a source of growth factors, provided that the-cultures are illuminated. In contrast to the green plants, no oxygen is produced during photosynthesis. A number of strains will grow in the dark provided that oxygen is present. Themost genera...

Activating enzyme (AE) is responsible for the in vitro activation of inactive Fe protein of nitrogenase from Rhodospirillum rubrum cells cultured anaerobically with glutamate as the N source. The expression of Fe protein and AE was examined in R. rubrum cultured photosynthetically or aerobically on media containing malate as the carbon source. One of the following N sources was used in each cul...

The role of NAD+ in the metabolic regulation of nitrogenase, the 'switch-off' effect, in Rhodospirillum rubrum has been studied. We now show that the decrease in nitrogenase activity upon addition of NAD+ to R. rubrum is due to modification of dinitrogenase reductase. There was no effect when NAD+ was added to a mutant of R. rubrum devoid of dinitrogenase reductase ADP-ribosyltransferase, indic...

A second nitrogenase activity has been demonstrated in Rhodospirillum rubrum. This nitrogenase is expressed whenever a strain lacks an active Mo nitrogenase because of physiological or genetic inactivation. The alternative nitrogenase is able to support growth on N2 in the absence of fixed N. V does not stimulate, nor does Mo or W inhibit, growth or activity under the conditions tested. The pro...

Diquat (2 x 10(-4)m) inhibited both aerobic and anaerobic growth of Rhodospirillum rubrum. With photosynthetic cultures, diquat affected the synthesis of bacteriochlorophyll more readily than cell mass (turbidity). Diquat retarded the synthesis of bacteriochlorophyll and some protein more readily than that of other cellular constituents such as ribonucleic acid, deoxyribonucleic acid, and cell ...

Van Niel's classical distinction between bacterial and green plant photosyntheses is based on the differences in the metabolism of the photooxidant (16). But direct measurement of the oxidizing power in bacterial photosynthesis is, at best, difficult with the usual spectrophotometric equipment. Light-induced oxidations of endogenous cytochromes have been demonstrated in whole cells and extracts...

The early steps of photosynthesis involve the photoexcitation of reaction centers (RCs) and light-harvesting (LH) units. Here, we show that the historically overlooked excitonic delocalization across RC and LH pigments results in a redistribution of absorption amplitudes that benefits the absorption cross section of the optical bands associated with the RC of several species. While we prove tha...