Abstract
A vessel was constructed for growth of photosynthetic bacteria at defined light intensity, temperature and partial pressure of oxygen.
Under growth conditions at light intensities larger than 1,000 lx, the particles exposed by freeze-fracturing of thylakoids are unordered.
Under growth conditions at light intensities lower than 30 lx, the particles seen are hexagonally arranged. If the oxygen partial pressure is increased from 0 to 30 mm Hg while keeping the light intensity at 30 lx, the particles seen in the thylakoids are found to be unregularly arranged.
The protein pattern of thylakoids isolated from bacteria grown either at 2,000 lx or at 30 lx revealed a constant ratio of reaction centre polypeptide to either of the membrane polypeptides of 8 kdalton apparent Mr and 12 kdalton apparent Mr.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Cogdell RJ, Thornber JP (1980) Light-harvesting pigment protein complexes of purple photosynthetic bacteria. FEBS Letters 122:1–8
Deisenhofer J, Epp O, Miki K, Huber R, Michel H (1984) X-ray structure analysis of a membrane protein complex: electron density map at 3 A resolution and a model of the chromophores of the photosynthetic reaction center from R. viridis. J Mol Biol 180:385–398
Engelhardt H, Baumeister W, Saxton WO (1983) Electron microscopy of photosynthetic membranes containing bacteriochlorophyll b. Arch Microbiol 135:169–175
Jay F, Lambillotte M, Muehlethaler K (1983) Localisation of R. viridis reaction centre and light harvesting proteins using ferritin-antibody labelling. Eur J Cell Biol 30:1–8
Kaplan S (1978) Control and kinetics of photosynthetic membrane development. In: Clayton RK, Sistrom WR (eds) The photosynthetic bacteria. Plenum, New York, pp 809–839
Kuehlbrandt W, Wehrli E, Muehlethaler K (1982) In: Electron microscopy, 10th Int. Cong. Electron Microscopy vol. 3, pp 44–46
Laemmli UK (1970) Cleavage of structural proteins during the assembly of the head of bacteriophage T4. Nature 227:680–685
Miller KR (1979) Structure of a bacterial photosynthetic membrane. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 76:6415–6419
Miller KR (1982) Three-dimensional structure of a photosynthetic membrane. Nature 300:53–55
Peters J, Welte W, Drews G (1984) Topographical relationships of polypeptides in the photosynthetic membrane of R. viridis investigated by reversible cross-linking. FEBS Letters 171: 267–270
Pfennig N (1978) General physiology and ecology of photosynthetic bacteria. In: Clayton RK, Sistron WR (eds) The photosynthetic bacteria. Plenum, New York, pp 3–14
Wehrli E, Kuebler O (1980) The two-dimensional lattice of the photosynthetic membrane of R. viridis. In: Baumeister W, Vogell W (eds) Electron microscopy at molecular dimensions. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 48–56
Wehrli E, Kuebler O, Koller T (1979) The architecture of the photosynthetic membrane of R. viridis. Experientia 35:984
Welte W, Kreutz W (1982) Formation, structure and composition of a planar hexagonal lattice composed of specific protein lipid complexes in the thylakoid membranes of R. viridis. Biochim Biophys Acta 692:479–488
Welte W, Hodapp N, Aehnelt C, Kreutz W (1981) Variable planar particle arrangements in the photosynthetic membrane of R. viridis. Biophys Struct Mech 7:209–212
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Dedicated to Prof. Dr. G. Drews on occasion of his 60th birthday
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Welte, W., Kreutz, W. Structure of thylakoids in cells of Rhodopseudomonas viridis as influenced by growth conditions. Arch. Microbiol. 141, 325–329 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00428844
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00428844