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Plant Physiology 79:943-948 (1985)
© 1985 American Society of Plant Biologists

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Articles

Constant Phycobilisome Size in Chromatically Adapted Cells of the Cyanobacterium Tolypothrix tenuis, and Variation in Nostoc sp. 1

Kaori Ohki2, Elisabeth Gantt, Claudia A. Lipschultz and Marjorie C. Ernst3

Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Rockville, Maryland 20852-1773

Phycobilisomes of Tolypothrix tenuis, a cyanobacterium capable of complete chromatic adaptation, were studied from cells grown in red and green light, and in darkness. The phycobilisome size remained constant irrespective of the light quality. The hemidiscoidal phycobilisomes had an average diameter of about 52 nanometers and height of about 33 nanometers, by negative staining. The thickness was equivalent to a phycocyanin molecule (about 10 nanometers). The molar ratio of allophycocyanin, relative to other phycobiliproteins always remained at about 1:3. Phycobilisomes from red light grown cells and cells grown heterotrophically in darkness were indistinguishable in their pigment composition, polypeptide pattern, and size. Eight polypeptides were resolved in the phycobilin region (17.5 to 23.5 kilodaltons) by isoelectric focusing followed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Half of these were invariable, while others were variable in green and red light. It is inferred that phycoerythrin synthesis in green light resulted in a one for one substitution of phycocyanin, thus retaining a constant phycobilisome size. Tolypothrix appears to be one of the best examples of phycobiliprotein regulation with wavelength. By contrast, in Nostoc sp., the decrease in phycoerythrin in red light cells was accompanied by a decrease in phycobilisome size but not a regulated substitution.

2 Present address: National Institute of Basic Biology, 38 Nishigonaka, Myodaijicho, Okazaki 444, Japan.

3 Part of this work is from research for a masters thesis awarded by the University of Maryland.

1 This work was supported in part by Department of Energy Contract AS 05-76ER-04310.




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L.-N. Liu, T. J. Aartsma, J.-C. Thomas, G. E. M. Lamers, B.-C. Zhou, and Y.-Z. Zhang
Watching the Native Supramolecular Architecture of Photosynthetic Membrane in Red Algae: TOPOGRAPHY OF PHYCOBILISOMES AND THEIR CROWDING, DIVERSE DISTRIBUTION PATTERNS
J. Biol. Chem., December 12, 2008; 283(50): 34946 - 34953.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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Copyright © 1985 by the American Society of Plant Biologists