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BACTERIAL CAROTENOIDS FROM FRESHWATER SEDIMENTS 1
Author(s) -
Brown Seward R.
Publication year - 1968
Publication title -
limnology and oceanography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.7
H-Index - 197
eISSN - 1939-5590
pISSN - 0024-3590
DOI - 10.4319/lo.1968.13.2.0233
Subject(s) - carotenoid , pigment , sediment , xanthophyll , bacteriochlorophyll , chlorophyll a , isomerization , chemistry , botany , chlorophyll , environmental chemistry , biology , photochemistry , biochemistry , organic chemistry , paleontology , catalysis
Sediment cores from Little Round Lake, Ontario, contain a band extending from 200 to 225 cm beneath the mud‐water interface that is rich in bacterial carotenoids. Crystalline preparations of spheroidenone were obtained from extracts of the sediment, together with smaller quantities of spheroidene (pigment Y) and 2‐keto‐spirilloxanthin (P‐518). The bacterial carotenoids occur in association with algal carotenoids, chlorophyll derivatives, and bacteriopheophytin. Cis‐trans isomerization of the compounds appears to have taken place in the sediments. Three stereoisomers of spheroidenone and two of spheroidene were found. P‐518 was isolated only in the trans form. The isomerization process may have geochemical implications. No morphologically distinguishable remains of the organisms that produced the pigments could be found in the sediments. The relative proportions of the three fossil xanthophylls are in close agreement with those found in senescent cultures of Rhodopseudomonas spheroides when grown under aerobic conditions. Identification of the organism is attempted, based on comparison of pigment distribution in the Athiorhodaceae with that of the fossil pigments from the lake sediment.