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On the photosynthetic properties of marine bacterium COL2P belonging to Roseobacter clade

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Abstract

Aerobic anoxygenic phototrophs (AAPs) are prokaryotic microorganisms capable of harvesting light using bacteriochlorophyll-based reaction centres. Marine AAP communities are generally dominated by species belonging to the Roseobacter clade. For this reason, we used marine Roseobacter-related strain COL2P as a model organism to characterize its photosynthetic apparatus, level of pigmentation and expression of photosynthetic complexes. This strain contained functional photosynthetic reaction centres with bacteriochlorophyll a and spheroidenone as the main light-harvesting pigments, but the expression of the photosynthetic apparatus was significantly reduced when compared to truly photoautotrophic species. Moreover, the absence of peripheral light-harvesting complexes largely reduced its light-harvesting capacity. The size of the photosynthetic unit was limited to 35.4 ± 1.0 BChl a molecules supplemented by the same number of spheroidenone molecules. The contribution of oxidative phosphorylation and photophosphorylation was analysed by respiration and fluorometric measurements. Our results indicate that even with a such reduced photosynthetic apparatus, photophosphorylation provides up to three times higher electron fluxes than aerobic respiration. These results suggest that light-derived energy can provide a substantial fraction of COL2P metabolic needs.

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Abbreviations

AAPs:

Aerobic anoxygenic phototrophs

BChl a :

Bacteriochlorophyll a

BPhe a :

Bacteriophaeophytine a

FM :

Maximum fluorescence

FV :

Variable fluorescence

RC:

Reaction centre

Rsb.:

Roseobacter

Rba. :

Rhodobacter

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Czech Grant Agency project 206/07/0241, GAAV project IAA608170603 and the Inst. research concepts MSM6007665808 and AV0Z50200510. The authors thank Bc. Martin Marin for his help with the maintenance of the cultures, Dr. Dagmara Sirová for the microscopic analyses and Dr. Vladimíra Moulisová for providing the 16S rRNA sequence.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Microbiology CAS, Opatovický mlýn, 379 81, Třeboň, Czech Republic

    Michal Koblížek & Jiří Kopecký

  2. Institute of Physical Biology, University of South Bohemia, Zámek 36, 373 33, Nové Hrady, Czech Republic

    Jarmila Mlčoušková

  3. Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, 7700 Sandholdt Road, Moss Landing, CA, 93901, USA

    Zbigniew Kolber

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  1. Michal Koblížek
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  2. Jarmila Mlčoušková
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  3. Zbigniew Kolber
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  4. Jiří Kopecký
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Correspondence to Michal Koblížek.

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Communicated by Erko Stackebrandt.

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Koblížek, M., Mlčoušková, J., Kolber, Z. et al. On the photosynthetic properties of marine bacterium COL2P belonging to Roseobacter clade. Arch Microbiol 192, 41–49 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-009-0529-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-009-0529-0

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