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PROBING PHYCOBILISOME STRUCTURE BY IMMUNO‐ELECTRON MICROSCOPY 1
Author(s) -
Gantt Elisabeth,
Lipschultz Claudia A.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
journal of phycology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.85
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1529-8817
pISSN - 0022-3646
DOI - 10.1111/j.1529-8817.1977.tb02912.x
Subject(s) - phycobilisome , allophycocyanin , biology , thylakoid , phycoerythrin , phosphotungstic acid , biophysics , electron microscope , phycocyanin , botany , biochemistry , cyanobacteria , chloroplast , microbiology and biotechnology , optics , flow cytometry , genetics , physics , bacteria , gene , catalysis
By immuno‐electron microscopy it was shown that phycoerythrin is located on the outer surface of the phycobilisome and allophycocyanin is on the inside near the photosynthetic membrane in the red alga Porphyridium purpureum (Bory) Drew & Ross (P. cruentum). These findings are consistent with the idea that the phycobilisome junctions as a light harvesting antenna and energy sink, which directs the energy to chlorophyll in the photosynthetic membrane. A technique was devised in which unfixed phycobilisomes, attached to thylakoid vesicles, were separately reacted with three monospecific antisera (to B‐phycoerythrin, R‐phycocyanin and allophycocyanin) and the reaction products were secondarily marked by reaction with ferritin‐conjugated goat‐antirabbit gamma globulin fraction. This was subsequently followed by glutaraldehyde fixation and staining with phosphotungstic acid. The entire procedure was carried out on an electron microscope grid. The results confirm the previously proposed phycobilisome structural model.