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. 1987 Oct 15;247(2):489–492. doi: 10.1042/bj2470489

Effect of oxygen on levels of mRNA coding for reaction-centre and light-harvesting polypeptides of Rhodobacter sphaeroides.

C N Hunter 1, M K Ashby 1, S A Coomber 1
PMCID: PMC1148434  PMID: 3322265

Abstract

The relative levels of mRNA for the reaction-centre L and M subunits, B875 (LH1) alpha and beta polypeptides and B800-850 (LH2) alpha and beta polypeptides, have been measured during pigment induction of Rhodobacter sphaeroides. Over the 6 h of the experiment, bacteriochlorophyll levels increased by at least 100-fold. No transcripts for photosynthetic components were detectable at the start of induction; after 2 h the levels of transcripts from the puf operon (encoding reaction-centre and B875 subunits) had reached the maximum; these transcripts were 2.7 and 0.5 kb respectively. The transcript for the puc operon (B800-850 complex) was estimated to be 0.55 kb and reached a maximum level after 6 h. These results are consistent with the proposal that, during the assembly of the photosynthetic apparatus, the synthesis of B875 reaction-centre aggregates precedes that of the major antenna, B800-850.

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Selected References

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