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Carotenoids as Components of the Light-harvesting Proteins of Eukaryotic Algae

  • Chapter
The Photochemistry of Carotenoids

Part of the book series: Advances in Photosynthesis and Respiration ((AIPH,volume 8))

Summary

Studies of light harvesting proteins which contain carotenoids as the principal components absorbing light in the spectral region from 450 nm to 550 nm have three principal aims. These may be summarized as: how do these proteins work at the structure/function level; how do they adapt to different environmental conditions and how did they evolve. At the structural level the emphasis has shifted, perhaps prematurely, from studies of pigment composition and basic biochemistry to a consideration of atomic structures and viewing carotenoids in action directly by means of time resolved spectroscopy. The only caroteno-Chl protein from eukaryotic algae for which a high resolution structrue is available is soluble peridinin chlorophyll a-protein (sPCP). PCP is the protein with the highest carotenoid:Chl ratio and has the potential to greatly advance our understanding of photosynthetic energy transfer through site directed mutagenesis and in vitro reconstitution from heterologously expressed protein and purified pigments.

Application of molecular biological techniques has yielded derived amino acid sequences of intrinsic light-harvesting proteins from all major and some minor groups of algae. These sequences can all accommodate the basic structural pattern determined for higher plants, that is, three transmembrane structure helices with key Chl a molecules conserved on the crossed first and third helices. However, the positioning of carotenoid molecules in this class of antenna complexes is still uncertain. Isolation of light-harvesting genes, especially from diatoms, brown algae and dinoflagellates, has also provided molecular tools to integrate basic pigment composition data with the synthesis/degradation of specific mRNAs and their corresponding proteins. Sufficient LHC sequences are now available that evolutionary relationships between the different groups of algae can be delineated and these can be compared with those deduced from 16sRNA and other conserved features. The diatoms and brown algal sequences form a related group but Isochrysis, although containing fucoxanthin, is as distant from the former as is that of dinoflagellates. The origin of the sPCP genes remains obscure.

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Abbreviations

Cab protein:

chlorophyll a/b-binding protein

Chl:

chlorophyll

DGDG:

digalactosyl diglyceride

FCP:

Fucoxanthin-Chlorophyll Protein

HLIP:

High Light Induced Protein

iPCP:

intrinsic Peridinin Chlorophyll a-Protein

LHC:

light-harvesting complex

MFPCP:

Mainform Peridinin

Chlorophyll a:

Protein

PCP:

Peridinin Chlorophyll a-Protein

PCR:

polymerase chain reaction

pI:

isoelectric point

PSI:

Photosystem I

PS II:

Photosystem II

RT-PCR:

reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction

Rubisco:

ribulose 1,5-biscarboxylase

sPCP:

soluble Peridinin Chlorophyll a-Protein

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, NSW, Australia, 2113

    Roger G. Hiller

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  1. Roger G. Hiller
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA

    Harry A. Frank

  2. Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK

    Andrew J. Young

  3. University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

    George Britton

  4. University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

    Richard J. Cogdell

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© 1999 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Hiller, R.G. (1999). Carotenoids as Components of the Light-harvesting Proteins of Eukaryotic Algae. In: Frank, H.A., Young, A.J., Britton, G., Cogdell, R.J. (eds) The Photochemistry of Carotenoids. Advances in Photosynthesis and Respiration, vol 8. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-48209-6_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-48209-6_5

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