Photosynthetic Apparatus in the Green Bacterium Chloropseudomonas ethylicum

Abstract

Holt, Stanley C. (Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, N.H.), S. F. Conti, and R. C. Fuller. Photosynthetic apparatus in the green bacterium Chloro-pseudomonas ethylicum. J. Bacteriol. 91:311-323. 1966.-When cells of Chloro-pseudomonas ethylicum were broken by ballistic disruption and examined by electron microscopy, vesicles 1,300 to 1,500 A long and 300 to 500 A wide were found to rim the periphery of the cell. Examination of these vesicles obtained by disruption with a French pressure cell and purified by density gradient centrifugation revealed inter-connections between the vesicles. During sonic and Mickle disruption of the cells, chlorophyll was released at a lower rate than soluble cytoplasmic components, but faster than the membrane-bound enzyme succinic dehydrogenase. Unlike the situation that exists in the purple photosynthetic bacteria, it appears that the chlorophyll in the green bacteria is contained as part of a structure which may be differentiated both structurally and functionally from the bacterial cytoplasmic membrane.