Unraveling photosystems. Final technical report
This report highlights four main points. (1) A residue substitution in phosphoribulokinase of Synechocystis PCC 6803 renders the mutant light-sensitive. The authors isolated a light-sensitive mutant (BRLS) of the photosynthetic cyanobacterium Synechocystis 6803 that does not survive exposure to bright light; 70% of BRLS cells die upon exposure to light of > 3000 lux for 2 hr. (2) Excitation energy transfer from phycocyanin to chlorophyll in an apcA-defective mutant of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. A greenish mutant of the normally bule-green cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PC 6803, designated UV6p, was isolated and characterized. UV6p possesses functional photosystems I and II but lacks normal light harvesting phycobilisomes because allophycocyanin is absent and core-specific linker proteins are almost entirely absent. (3) Deletion of the psbG1 gene of the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 leads to the activation of the cryptic psbG2 gene. The genes psbG1 and psbG2 in cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 are homologous. The psbG1 gene is located on the chromosome and is part of the ndhC-psbG1-ORF157 operon, while psbG2 is located on a plasmid and is not flanked by equivalent ndhC or ORF157 genes. (4) Deletion of the structural gene for the NADH-dehydrogenase subunit 4 of Synechocystis 6803 alters respiratory properties. Chloroplasts and cyanobacteria contain genes encoding polypeptides homologous to some subunits of the mitochondrial respiratory NADH-ubiquinol oxidoreductase complex (NADH dehydrogenase). Nothing is known of the role of the NADH dehydrogenase complex in photosynthesis, respiration, or other functions in chloroplasts, and little is known about their specific roles in the perhaps 42 subunits of this complex in the mitochondrion.
- Research Organization:
- Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Research, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG02-87ER13743
- OSTI ID:
- 542012
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/ER/13743--T1; ON: DE97009422
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English