[Role of phycobilin pigments in photosynthesis]

Experimental data on possible role of phicobilliprotein (PhBP) in photosynthesis are analysed. It is concluded that the widely spread notion about PhBP only as the light-gathering pigments which transfer the energy to chlorophyll, turned to be insufficiently substantiated experimentally until recently. At the same time the discovered ability of PhBP for reversible redox transformations together with the new data on the nature of fluorescence of blue-green algae and PhBP localization in the cell allowed a suggestion that PhBP can independently of chlorophyll or together with it directly participate in photochemical reactions of photosynthesis. A suggestion is advanced concerning possible existence of the reaction centres of PhBP in phicobillisomes.