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Influence of Light on the Biosynthesis of Bacteriochlorophyll by Rhodopseudomonas spheroides

Nature 199, 1112–1113 (1963) | Download Citation

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Abstract

MANY species of the purple bacteria can grow under conditions of aerobic dark metabolism as well as in the light under anaerobic conditions1. Cells growing in the dark contain no bacteriochlorophyll and no carotenoids or only traces of these pigments2,3. The apparatus for photophosphorylation which is localized in the chromatophores is also absent in aerobic cultures4,5. Transfer of aerobically grown organisms to anaerobic conditions in the light results in the adaptation of the cells to form the pigments and the chromatophores7. Partial pressure of oxygen and light are the main factors in regulating the formation of the photosynthetic apparatus in the cells2,3,6,7; but we did not know the kind of influence of light.

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References

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    Niel, C. B. van, Ann. Rev. Microbiol., 8, 105 (1954).

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    Cohen-Bazire, G., Sistrom, W. R., Stanier, R. Y., J. Cell Comp. Physiol., 49, 25 (1957).

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    Lascelles, J., Biochem. J., 72, 508 (1959).

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    Vatter, A. E., and Wolfe, R. S., J. Bact., 75, 480 (1958).

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    Frenkel, A. W., and Hickman, D. D., J. Biophys. Biochem. Cytol., 6, 285 (1959).

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    Stanier, R. Y., Brookh. Symp. Biol., 11, 43 (1958).

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    Drews, G., and Giesbrecht, P., Zbl. Bakt. I. Abt. Orig. (in the press).

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      Wolken, J. J., Brookh. Symp. Biol., 11, 87 (1958).

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    1. Department of Botany, Freiburg im Breisgau

      • G. DREWS
      •  & K. JAEGER

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    https://doi.org/10.1038/1991112a0

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