Control of composition and activity of the photosynthetic apparatus of Rhodopseudomonas capsulata grown in ammonium-limited continuous culture

Rhodopseudomonas capsulata was grown either phototropically in the light or chemotrophically in the dark at oxygen tensions of 5 mm and 3 mm Hg in ammonium-limited continuous culture. During growth limitation bacteriochlorophyll content of cells and membranes varied dependent on growth rate drastically in chemotrophic cultures. Concomittantly, the ratio of membrane protein to total protein varied in the range of 30-41%. This dependence of membrane differentiation on growth rate was less evident in phototrophically grown cells. The incorporation of the bulk of bacteriochlorophyll was shown to be quantitatively correlated to the incorporation of 1-3 low molecular weight proteins with molecular weights in the range of 14 to less than 10 k daltons. Supported by similar findings of other authors it is proposed, that these proteins are to be attributed to the species of antenna bacteriochlorophyll and represent components of the photosynthetic apparatus. With decreasing growth rates the size of the photosynthetic unit with respect to the population of bacteriochlorophyll- and protein molecules was reduced subsequent to a reduction in the rate of incorporation of antenna-bacteriochlorophyll and the low molecular weight proteins, the reaction-center bacteriochlorophyll content of the membranes remaining constant. A parallel decrease in potential phosphorylating capacity was observed. It is concluded, that under these conditions, primary photochemical reactions in the reaction center were not the rate-limiting step in photophosphorylation. The interaction of growth limitation by an anabolic precursor (NH+4) and control of membrane differentiation by light intensity or oxygen tension is discussed.