Characterisation of a pucBA deletion mutant from Rhodopseudomonas palustris lacking all but the pucBA d genes

• Published in: Photosynthesis research Vol. 135; no. 1-3; p. 9
• Main Authors: Southall, June, Henry, Sarah L, Gardiner, Alastair T, Roszak, Aleksander W, Mullen, William, Carey, Anne-Marie, Kelly, Sharon M, de Percin Northumberland, Claire Ortmann, Cogdell, Richard J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands 01-03-2018
• Subjects: Bacteriochlorophylls - metabolism; Carotenoids - metabolism; Chemical Fractionation; Circular Dichroism; Crystallization; Gene Deletion; Genes, Bacterial; Light-Harvesting Protein Complexes - genetics; Models, Molecular; Peptides - metabolism; Rhodopseudomonas - genetics; Rhodopseudomonas - growth & development; Rhodopseudomonas - ultrastructure; Light-harvesting; LH2; Puc genes; Photosynthesis; Purple bacteria
• ISSN: 1573-5079

Rhodopseudomonas palustris is a species of purple photosynthetic bacteria that has a multigene family of puc genes that encode the alpha and beta apoproteins, which form the LH2 complexes. A genetic dissection strategy has been adopted in order to try and understand which spectroscopic form of LH2 these different genes produce. This paper presents a characterisation of one of the deletion mutants generated in this program, the pucBA
only mutant. This mutant produces an unusual spectroscopic form of LH2 that only has a single large NIR absorption band at 800 nm. Spectroscopic and pigment analyses on this complex suggest that it has basically a similar overall structure as that of the wild-type HL LH2 complex. The mutant has the unique phenotype where the mutant LH2 complex is only produced when cells are grown at LL. At HL the mutant only produces the LH1-RC core complex.