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. 2020 Feb 3;101(3):e02951. doi: 10.1002/ecy.2951

Figure 1.

Figure 1

Light‐harvesting strategies of cyanobacteria and green algae. Cyanobacteria and green algae both contain two photosystems (PSI and PSII). (A) Most cyanobacteria use phycobilisomes (PBS) as light‐harvesting antennae, which transfer their absorbed light energy mostly to PSII. (B) Green algae and higher plants use chlorophyll‐based light‐harvesting complexes (LHCI and LHCII), which serve as light‐harvesting antennae for both photosystems. (C) Absorption spectra of a green alga (Chlorella sorokiniana 211‐8K) and a cyanobacterium (Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803). The spectrum of the green alga shows absorption peaks of chl a (440 and 678 nm) and chl b (480 and 650 nm), whereas the cyanobacterium shows absorption peaks of chl a and of the phycobili‐pigment phycocyanobilin (PC, at 625 nm). Both species also contain carotenoids, which absorb photons in the 400–500 nm range. (D) The green alga Chlorella (green diamonds) has higher specific growth rates in blue light, whereas (E) the cyanobacterium Synechocystis (blue triangles) has higher specific growth rates in red light. Data in panels D and E are averages of three biological replicates ± SD, from experiments of Luimstra et al. (2018).