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The Water-Soluble Cytochromes of Cyanobacteria

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Bioenergetic Processes of Cyanobacteria

Abstract

The water-soluble cytochromes of cyanobacteria were first characterized in a biochemical sense in 1963. Three distinct cytochromes—cytochrome c554, cytochrome c552 and cytochrome c550 were named by the location of their absorption peak near the red end of the visible spectrum. These cytochromes were similar in size, heme coenzyme and redox behavior compared to the soluble cytochrome c found in eukaryotic mitochondria and so became cytochrome cs. Cytochrome c554 became cytochrome c6 and was found to transfer electrons to Photosystem I in photosynthesis. This cytochrome is also the donor of electrons to the respiratory cytochrome oxidase in cyanobacteria. The functional roles of cytochrome c552 and c550 are still tentative. Cytochrome c550 is often called low potential cytochrome c550 since its reduction potential is distinctively lower than that of the other two. With the advent of genome sequencing of cyanobacteria, we realized that some organisms have multiple paralogs encoding proteins similar to the water-soluble cytochromes. There are cases where 1, 2, 3 or 4 putative cytochrome c6 genes are recognized in the same cyanobacterium. The presence of different cytochrome c6 analogs in extracts of cells grown in conditions of optimum photosynthesis has not been reported. There follows here a review of the water-soluble cytochromes and their coding sequences that have appeared in cyanobacterial genomes. As of March 2009, 36 complete and 35 incomplete genomes ranging in size from 1.6 to 10 Mbp are available from the National Centre for Biotechnology Information database. It is likely that there will be many more genomes at the time of publication and many more interesting insights.

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Acknowledgements

The work of CAK is performed under the auspices of the US Department of Energy’s Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research Program, and by the University of California, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory under contract number DE-AC02–05CH11231, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under contract number DE-AC52–07NA27344.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry, Purdue University, 175 S. University Street, 47907-2063, West Lafayette, IN, USA

    Kwok Ki Ho & David W. Krogmann

  2. Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California, Berkeley, 111 Koshland Hall #3102, 94720, Berkelery, CA, USA

    Cheryl A. Kerfeld

  3. United States Department of Energy, Joint Genome Institute, 2800 Mitchell Drive, Walnut Creek, CA, 94598, USA

    Cheryl A. Kerfeld

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  1. Kwok Ki Ho
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  2. Cheryl A. Kerfeld
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  3. David W. Krogmann
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Correspondence to David W. Krogmann .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Inst. Physikalische Chemie, Molecular Bioenergetics Group, Univ. Wien, Währingerstr. 42, Wien, 1090, Austria

    Guenter A. Peschek

  2. Department für Chemie, Abteilung für Biochemie, Universität für Bodenkultur Wien, Althanstrasse 14, Wien, 1190, Austria

    Christian Obinger

  3. Fak. II Mathematik/Naturwissenschaften, Institut für Chemie, TU Berlin, Straße des 17. Juni 135, Berlin, 10587, Berlin, Germany

    Gernot Renger

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Ho, K.K., Kerfeld, C.A., Krogmann, D.W. (2011). The Water-Soluble Cytochromes of Cyanobacteria. In: Peschek, G., Obinger, C., Renger, G. (eds) Bioenergetic Processes of Cyanobacteria. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0388-9_18

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