Abstract
The thylakoids of the thermophilic cyanobacterium Mastigocladus laminosus were examined by freeze-fracture analysis. The expolasmatic (EF)-freeze-fracture particles are organized in rows, separated by 45 nm or more with a 12-nm center-tocenter spacing of neighboring particles. Phycobilisomes, associated to the outer thylakoid surfaces show a similar spacing pattern. Fractures exposing simultaneously phycobilisomes and EF-freeze-fracture particles on the same thylakoid show a direct alignment of both systems. Consequently the phycobilisomes are concluded to be associated peripherally on top of the EF-freeze-fracture particles in a 1:1 assembly pattern. The periodicity of the EF-freeze-fracture particles determines the arrangement of the phycobilisomes in the rows. The planar phycobilisome model of Mörschel et al. (1977) easily allows a successive arrangement of the phycobilisomes in a row, whereas with the staggered model developed by Bryant et al. (1979), only a cogged arrangement of neighboring phycobilisomes is possible.
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Abbreviations
- EF-face:
-
exoplasmatic fracture face
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This study is dedicated to Professor Dr. H.-A. von Stosch on the occasion of his 75th birthday
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Mörschel, E., Mühlethaler, K. On the linkage of exoplasmatic freeze-fracture particles to phycobilisomes. Planta 158, 451–457 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00397739
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00397739