Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 9, 2026

Rapid Assembly of Multi-Gene Constructs using Modular Golden Gate Cloning
Published on: February 5, 2021
Light-harvesting II (B800-B850 complex) structural genes from Rhodopseudomonas capsulata
1Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724.
Abstract:
The light-harvesting II (LHII) structural genes coding for the (B800-B850 complex) beta- and alpha-polypeptides have been cloned and the nucleotide and deduced polypeptide sequences have been determined. This completes the sequencing of all seven structural genes coding for the structural polypeptides of the photosynthetic apparatus that bind the pigments and cofactors participating in the primary light reactions of photosynthesis. Unlike the structural genes coding for the reaction center L, M, and H subunits and the light-harvesting I (LHI) (B870 complex) structural polypeptides, the LHII structural genes are not within the 46-kilobase photosynthetic gene cluster carried by the R-prime plasmid pRPS404. Identical organization of the beta and alpha structural genes for both LHI and LHII and sequence homologies between the two beta-polypeptides and between the two alpha-polypeptides suggests that both complexes arose by gene duplication from a single ancestral light-harvesting complex and that the putative bacteriochlorophyll binding sequence Ala-X-X-X-His has been absolutely conserved.
Related Concept Videos
Channel Rhodopsins
Rhodopsins belong to the family of cell surface proteins called G-protein coupled receptors,...
The Antenna Complex
Photosystem I
Both these photosystems work in concert. An excited electron from PSII is relayed to PSI via an electron transport chain in the thylakoid membrane of the chloroplast, which is comprised of the carrier molecule plastoquinone, the dual-protein cytochrome complex, and plastocyanin. As electrons move between PSII and PSI, they lose energy and must be re-energized...
The Photochemical Reaction Center
