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Microbial physiology

The power of light

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 5, pages 244–245 (2007)Cite this article

Spectrally-tuned PR proteins illuminated with green light pump protons that can be used to produce ATP. The PR of SAR11, one of the most abundant oceanic bacteria, was previously shown to pump protons in response to green light. The failure of green light to stimulate the growth of SAR11 left researchers puzzling over the environmental conditions in which bacterial PRs generate useable cellular energy.

A group of researchers led by Jan Liphardt decided to probe PR function using the surrogate model system Escherichia coli . Flagellar rotation in bacteria is proportional to proton motive force (pmf) — the electrochemical potential of protons across the membrane — and can be used to assess the contribution of PR to cell physiology by measuring swim speeds. In aerobic conditions pmf is maintained by oxidative phosphorylation. Under normal conditions, green light illumination did not affect the speed of E. coli swimming. But when respiration was knocked out, either by poisoning cells with azide or by depleting cells of the electron acceptor oxygen, swimming speeds became light-responsive. So E. coli can compensate for an inability to produce ATP from respiration and use power generated by PR-mediated light transduction to swim.

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPERS

  1. Walter, J. M., Greenfield, D., Bustamente, C. & Liphardt, J. Light-powering Escherichia coli with proteorhodopsin. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 104, 2408–2412 (2007)

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  2. Gómez-Consarnau, L. et al. Light stimulates growth of proteorhodopsin-containing marine Flavobacteria. Nature 445, 210–213 (2007)

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Authors
  1. Susan Jones
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Jones, S. The power of light. Nat Rev Microbiol 5, 244–245 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro1648

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro1648

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