Abstract
IT has been shown by several workers that the carotenes of photosynthetic bacteria protect the organisms against a lethel photodynamic reaction in which intracellular bacteriochlorophyll is the photosensitizer1,2. It has been suggested that the carotenes found in many non-photosynthetic bacteria may have the same protective function in these organisms1. Here, some other compound would be the photosensitizer in place of bacteriochlorophyll.
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References
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Goodwin, T. W., ‘The Comparative Biochemistry of the Carotenoids’ (Chapman and Hall, London, 1952).
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MATHEWS, M., SISTROM, W. Function of Carotenoid Pigments in Non-Photosynthetic Bacteria. Nature 184, 1892–1893 (1959). https://doi.org/10.1038/1841892a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1841892a0
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