The cyanobacterium Gloeobacter violaceus PCC 7421 uses bacterial-type phytoene desaturase in carotenoid biosynthesis

AbstractCarotenoid composition and its biosynthetic pathway in the cyanobacterium Gloeobacter violaceus PCC 7421 were investigated. β-Carotene and (2S,2′S)-oscillol 2,2′-di(α-l-fucoside), and echinenone were major and minor carotenoids, respectively. We identified two unique genes for carotenoid biosynthesis using in vivo functional complementation experiments. In Gloeobacter, a bacterial-type phytoene desaturase (CrtI), rather than plant-type desaturases (CrtP and CrtQ), produced lycopene. This is the first demonstration of an oxygenic photosynthetic organism utilizing bacterial-type phytoene desaturase. We also revealed that echinenone synthesis is catalyzed by CrtW rather than CrtO. These findings indicated that Gloeobacter retains ancestral properties of carotenoid biosynthesis

The secondary electron acceptor of photosystem I in Gloeobacter violaceus PCC 7421 is menaquinone-4 that is synthesized by a unique but unknown pathway

The secondary electron acceptor of photosystem (PS) I in the cyanobacterium Gloeobacter violaceus PCC 7421 was identified as menaquinone-4 (MQ-4) by comparing high performance liquid chromatograms and absorption spectra with an authentic compound. The MQ-4 content was estimated to be two molecules per one molecule of chlorophyll (Chl) a′, a constituent of P700. Comparative genomic analyses showed that six of eight men genes, encoding phylloquinone/MQ biosynthetic enzymes, are missing from the G. violaceus genome. Since G. violaceus clearly synthesizes MQ-4, the combined results indicate that this cyanobacterium must have a novel pathway for the synthesis of 1,4-dihydroxy-2-naphthoic acid

Photosynthetic Energy Conversion: Hydrogen Photoproduction by Natural and Biomimetic Means

The main function of the photosynthetic process is to capture solar energy and to store it in the form of chemical fuels. Many fuel forms such as coal, oil and gas have been intensively used and are becoming limited. Hydrogen could become an important clean fuel for the future. Among different technologies for hydrogen production, oxygenic natural and artificial photosynthesis using direct photochemistry in synthetic complexes have a great potential to produce hydrogen as both use clean and cheap sources - water and solar energy. Photosynthetic organisms capture sunlight very efficiently and convert it into organic molecules. Artificial photosynthesis is one way to produce hydrogen from water using sunlight by employing biomimetic complexes. However, splitting of water into protons and oxygen is energetically demanding and chemically difficult. In oxygenic photosynthetic microorganisms water is splitted into electrons and protons during primary photosynthetic processes. The electrons and protons are redirected through the photosynthetic electron transport chain to the hydrogen-producing enzymes-hydrogenase or nitrogenase. By these enzymes, e- and H+ recombine and form gaseous hydrogen. Biohydrogen activity of hydrogenase can be very high but it is extremely sensitive to photosynthetic O2. At the moment, the efficiency of biohydrogen production is low. However, theoretical expectations suggest that the rates of photon conversion efficiency for H2 bioproduction can be high enough (> 10%). Our review examines the main pathways of H2 photoproduction using photosynthetic organisms and biomimetic photosynthetic systems and focuses on developing new technologies based on the effective principles of photosynthesis

Study on the Principle of Photosynthetic Light Energy Conversion Based on Divergence of Chlorophyll Molecules

The composition of photosystem II (PSII) in the chlorophyll (Chl) d-dominatedcyanobacterium Acaryochloris marina MBIC 11017 was investigated to enhance the generalunderstanding of the energetics of the PSII reaction center. We first purifiedphotochemically active complexes consisting of a 47 kDa chlorophyll protein (CP47), CP43’(PcbC), D1, D2, cytochrome b559, PsbI, and an unknown small polypeptide. The pigmentcomposition per two pheophytin (Phe) a molecules was 55 ± 7 Chl d, 3.0 ± 0.4 Chl a, 17 ± 3α-carotene, and 1.4 ± 0.2 plastoquinone-9. A special pair was detected by a reversibleabsorption change at 713 nm (P713) together with a cation radical band at 842 nm. FTIRdifference spectra of the specific bands of a 3-formyl group allowed assignment of the specialpair. The combined results indicate that the special pair includes a Chl d homodimer.The primary electron acceptor was shown by photoaccumulation to be Phe a, and itspotential was shifted to a higher value than that in the Chl a/Phe a system. The overallenergetics of PSII in the Chl d system adapt to changes in the redox potentials, with P713as the special pair utilizing lower light energy at 713 nm. Our findings support the ideathat changes in photosynthetic pigments combine with modification of the redox potentialsof electron transfer components to give rise to energy changes in the total reaction system.■原 著■ 2007 年度神奈川大学総合理学研究所共同研究助成論

Carotenoids in photosynthesis: absorption, transfer and dissipation of light energy

Abstract -The functioning of carotenoids in photosynthesis is discussed in relation to the reaction mechanism. The energy transfer process from the allenic carotenoid, fucoxanthin, to chl a was intensively investigated in the newly isolated fucoxanthin-chl a / c protein assembly (FCPA) from a brown alga Dictyota dichotoma. The transfer time was shorter than 3 ps at 15°C. The energy level responsible for transfer may not be the Qx band of chl a, contrary to the proposal for the transfer in the bacterial antenna system

Construction of a Phylogenetic Tree of Photosynthetic Prokaryotes Based on Average Similarities of Whole Genome Sequences

<div><p>Phylogenetic trees have been constructed for a wide range of organisms using gene sequence information, especially through the identification of orthologous genes that have been vertically inherited. The number of available complete genome sequences is rapidly increasing, and many tools for construction of genome trees based on whole genome sequences have been proposed. However, development of a reasonable method of using complete genome sequences for construction of phylogenetic trees has not been established. We have developed a method for construction of phylogenetic trees based on the average sequence similarities of whole genome sequences. We used this method to examine the phylogeny of 115 photosynthetic prokaryotes, i.e., cyanobacteria, Chlorobi, proteobacteria, Chloroflexi, Firmicutes and nonphotosynthetic organisms including Archaea. Although the bootstrap values for the branching order of phyla were low, probably due to lateral gene transfer and saturated mutation, the obtained tree was largely consistent with the previously reported phylogenetic trees, indicating that this method is a robust alternative to traditional phylogenetic methods.</p></div