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. 1969 Nov;44(11):1629-1633, 1635, 1637-1638. doi: 10.1104/pp.44.11.1629

Properties and Ultrastructure of Phycoerythrin From Porphyridium cruentum1,2

E Gantt a
PMCID: PMC396315  PMID: 16657250

Abstract

Phycoerythrin, a photosynthetic accessory pigment, was isolated from Porphyridium cruentum and examined by electron microscopy and disc gel electrophoresis. The absorption monomer, with maxima at 563, 545, and a shoulder at 500 nm, has a molecular weight of about 300,000. With phosphotungstic acid staining it appears as a tightly structured disc-shaped particle possessing a mean diameter of 101 ± 0.4Ä and height of 54 ± 0.7Å. The absorption maxima remained the same in glutaraldehyde fixed material, and in dimer and trimer aggregates. Treatment with sodium dodecyl sulfate caused a breakdown into smaller units accompanied by a loss of the 563 nm peak. It is suggested that this absorption monomer is the in vivo functional species and comparable to the phycocyanin hexamer, but structurally distinguishable at the ultrastructural level. It has been calculated that about 35 phycobiliprotein molecules can be contained within each phycobilisome. There are 1.4 × 103 chlorophyll molecules per phycobilisome, but not contained within it.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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