Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Plant Physiology logoLink to Plant Physiology
. 1981 Apr;67(4):608–612. doi: 10.1104/pp.67.4.608

Phycobilisome-thylakoid Topography on Photosynthetically Active Vesicles of Porphyridium cruentum1

Machi F Dilworth 1,2,2, Elisabeth Gantt 1,2
PMCID: PMC425741  PMID: 16661723

Abstract

Conditions are described for isolating functional phycobilisome-thylakoid vesicles from the red alga Porphyridium cruentum. Phycobilisome-thylakoid vesicles were prepared by brief sonication and centrifugation in a medium containing 0.5 molar sucrose, 0.5 molar potassium phosphate, and 0.3 molar sodium citrate (pH 7.0). They required ferricyanide as an oxidant and had O2 evolution rates (about 450 micromoles O2 per hour per milligram chlorophyll) higher than whole cells (about 250 micromoles O2 per hour per milligram chlorophyll). Energy transfer to photosystem II chlorophyll was evident from a high F695 nanometer (−196 C) emission peak. Preparations could be stored for over 24 hours and were considerably more stable than those from the cyanobacterium Anabaena variabilis (Katoh T, E Gantt 1979 Biochim Biophys Acta 546: 383-393). In electron micrographs of negatively stained material, the active thylakoid vesicles were found covered by closely spaced phycobilisomes on their external surface. The phycobilisome number in negatively stained vesicles was 450 per square micrometer, which was in the same range as the 400 per square micrometer observed in surface sections. A cell containing 1.5 × 10−6 micrograms phycoerythrin and 1.3 × 10−6 micrograms chlorophyll was found to contain 5 to 7 × 105 phycobilisomes on a thylakoid area of 1.1 to 1.6 × 103 square micrometers.

Full text

PDF
608

Images in this article

611Image
on p.611

Selected References

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

  1. BRODY M., EMERSON R. The quantum yield of photosynthesis in Porphyridium cruentum, and the role of chlorophyll a in the photosynthesis of red algae. J Gen Physiol. 1959 Nov;43:251–264. doi: 10.1085/jgp.43.2.251. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Canaani O. D., Gantt E. Circular dichroism and polarized fluorescence characteristics of blue-green algal allophycocyanins. Biochemistry. 1980 Jun 24;19(13):2950–2956. doi: 10.1021/bi00554a021. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Gantt E., Lipschultz C. A. Phycobilisomes of Porphyridium cruentum. I. Isolation. J Cell Biol. 1972 Aug;54(2):313–324. doi: 10.1083/jcb.54.2.313. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Gantt E., Lipschultz C. A. Phycobilisomes of Porphyridium cruentum: pigment analysis. Biochemistry. 1974 Jul 2;13(14):2960–2966. doi: 10.1021/bi00711a027. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Gantt E. Properties and Ultrastructure of Phycoerythrin From Porphyridium cruentum. Plant Physiol. 1969 Nov;44(11):1629–1638. doi: 10.1104/pp.44.11.1629. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Katoh T., Gantt E. Photosynthetic vesicles with bound phycobilisomes from Anabaena variabilis. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1979 Jun 5;546(3):383–393. doi: 10.1016/0005-2728(79)90075-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Krey A., Govindjee FLUORESCENCE CHANGES IN PORPHYRIDIUM EXPOSED TO GREEN LIGHT OF DIFFERENT INTENSITY: A NEW EMISSION BAND AT 693 mmu AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE TO PHOTOSYNTHESIS. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1964 Dec;52(6):1568–1572. doi: 10.1073/pnas.52.6.1568. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Ley A. C., Butler W. L. Effects of Chromatic Adaptation on the Photochemical Apparatus of Photosynthesis in Porphyridium cruentum. Plant Physiol. 1980 Apr;65(4):714–722. doi: 10.1104/pp.65.4.714. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. MacColl R., Csatorday K., Berns D. S., Traeger E. Chromophore interactions in allophycocyanin. Biochemistry. 1980 Jun 10;19(12):2817–2820. doi: 10.1021/bi00553a043. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Rijgersberg C. P., Amesz J., Thielen A. P., Swager J. A. Fluorescence emission spectra of chloroplasts and subchloroplast preparations at low temperature. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1979 Mar 15;545(3):473–482. doi: 10.1016/0005-2728(79)90156-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Plant Physiology are provided here courtesy of Oxford University Press

RESOURCES