Skip to main content
Log in

Incorporation of exogenous long-chain alcohols into bacteriochlorophyll c homologs by Chloroflexus aurantiacus

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Archives of Microbiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Chloroflexus aurantiacus grown in batch culture took up exogenous alcohols and incorporated these into bacteriochlorophyll c as the esterifying alcohol. It was possible to change the distribution of the naturally occurring homologs of bacteriochlorophyll c esterified with phytol, hexadecanol, and octadecanol by adding the appropriate alcohol. The corresponding homolog then made up at least 60% of the cellular bacteriochlorophyll c. It was also possible to obtain novel bacteriochlorophyll homologs not found in detectable amounts in control cells by adding fatty alcohols with short chains (C10, C12) or long chains (C20). These changes in bacteriochlorophyll composition had no detectable effects on the spectral properties of the chlorosomes.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

BChl :

Bacteriochlorophyll

References

  • Amesz J (1991) Green photosynthetic bacteria and heliobacteria. In: Shively JM, Barton LL (eds) Variations in autotrophic life. Academic Press, New York London, pp 99–119

    Google Scholar 

  • Borrego CM, Garcia-Gil LJ (1994) Separation of bacteriochlorophyll homologues from green photosynthetic sulfur bacteria by reversed-phase HPLC. Photosynthesis Res 41:157–163

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Brune DC, Nozawa T, Blankenship RE (1987) Antenna organization in green photosynthetic bacteria. 1. Oligomeric bacteriochlorophyll c as a model for the 740 nm absorbing bacteriochlorophyll c in Chloroflexus aurantiacus chlorosomes. Biochemistry 26:8644–8652

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Caple MB, Chow H, Strouse CE (1978) Photosynthetic pigments of green sulfur bacteria. J Biol Chem 19:6730–6737

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fages F, Griebenow N, Griebenow K, Holzwarth AR, Schaffner K (1990) Characterization of light-harvesting pigments of Chloroflexus aurantiacus. Two new chlorophylls: oleyl (octadec-9-enyl) and cetyl (hexadecanyl) bacteriochlorophyllides-c. J Chem Soc (Perkin Trans 1) 1990:2791–2797

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holzwarth AR, Schaffner K (1994) On the structure of bacteriochlorophyll molecular aggregates in the chlorosomes of green bacteria. A molecular modelling study. Photosynthesis Res 41:225–233

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Katz JJ, Bowman MK, Michalski TJ, Worcester DL (1991) Chlorophyll aggregation: chlorophyll/water micelles as models for in vivo long-wavelength chlorophyll. In: Scheer H (ed) The chlorophylls, CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp 211–235

    Google Scholar 

  • Larsen KL, Cox RP, Miller M (1994) Effects of illumination intensity on bacteriochlorophyll c homolog distribution in Chloroflexus aurantiacus grown under controlled conditions. Photosynthesis Res 41:151–156

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Matsuura K, Olson JM (1990) Reversible conversion of aggregated bacteriochlorophyll c to the monomeric form by 1-hexanol in chlorosomes from Chlorobium and Chloroflexus. Biochim Biophys Acta 1019:233–238

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Miller M, Cox RP, Gillbro T (1991) Energy transfer kinetics in chlorosomes from Chloroflexus aurantiacus: studies using picosecond absorbance and fluorescence spectroscopy. Biochim Biophys Acta 1057:187–194

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Nozawa T, Ohtomo K, Suzuki M, Morishita Y, Madigan MT (1991) Structures of bacteriochlorophylls c in chlorosomes from a new thermophilic bacterium Chlorobium tepidum. Chem Lett 1991:1763–1766

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oelze J, Sontgerath B (1992) Differentiation of the photosynthetic apparatus of Chloroflexus aurantiacus depending on growth with different amino acids Arch Microbiol 157:141–147

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ormerod JG (1992) Physiology of the photosynthetic prokaryotes. In: Mann NH, Carr NG (eds) Photosynthetic prokaryotes, Plenum Press, New York, pp 93–119

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Otte SCM, Meent EJ van de, Veelen PA van, Pundsnes AS, Amesz J (1993) Identification of the major chlorosomal bacteriochlorophylls of the green sulfur bacteria Chlorobium vibrioforme and Chlorobium phaeovibrioides: their function in lateral energy transfer. Photosynthesis Res 35:159–169

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pierson BK, Castenholz RW (1991) The family Chloroflexaceae. In: Balows A, Truper HG, Dworkin M, Harder W, Schleifer K-H (eds) The prokaryotes: a handbook on the biology of bacteria. Ecophysiology, isolation, identification, application. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg New York, pp 3754–3774

    Google Scholar 

  • Press WH, Teukolsky SA, Vetterling WT, Flannery BP (1992) Numerical recipes in C. The art of scientific computing. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Risch N, Brockmann H, Gloe A (1979) Structuraufklarung von neuartigen Bacteriochlorophyllen aus Chloroflexus aurantiacus. Liebigs Ann Chem 1979:408–418

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roepstorff P (1993) 252-Californium plasma desorption time-of-flight mass spectrometry of peptides and proteins. In: Jones C, Mulloy B, Thomas AH (eds) Methods in molecular biology: spectroscopic methods and analysis: NMR, mass spectrometry, and metalloprotein techniques. Humana Press, Totowa, pp 229–235

    Google Scholar 

  • Savitsky A, Golay MJE (1964) Smoothing and differentiation of data by simplified least-squares procedures. Anal Chem 36:1627–1639

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scheer H (1991) Structure and occurrence of chlorophylls. In: Scheer H (ed) The chlorophylls. CRC Press, Boca Raton, pp 3–30

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt K (1980) A comparative study on the composition of chlorosomes (Chlorobium vesicles) and cytoplasmic membranes from Chloroflexus aurantiacus strain Ok-70-fl and Chlorobium limicola f. thiosulfatophilum strain 6230. Arch Microbiol 124:21–31

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Raymond P. Cox.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Larsen, K.L., Miller, M. & Cox, R.P. Incorporation of exogenous long-chain alcohols into bacteriochlorophyll c homologs by Chloroflexus aurantiacus. Arch. Microbiol. 163, 119–123 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00381785

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00381785

Key words

Navigation