Immunological identification and quantification of light harvesting chlorophyll a/b protein of Chlorella...

The alteration of photosynthetic membrane proteins in relation to the disappearance of pigments during the heterotrophic growth of Chlorella protothecoides was investigated. Chlorophylls and certain polypeptides associated with the LHC II disappeared after 50 hr of heterotrophic growth but the 24 kDa apoprotein constituting LHC II was not affected. Immunological analysis indicated that the chlorophylls and the light harvesting complex proteins of the thylakoid membranes are not tightly coupled and the latter is retained in its native form irrespective of the presence or absence of the former. The circumstantial evidence that the other photosynthetic membrane polypeptides are degraded along with the pigments due to increased proteolytic activity in the rapidly dividing heterotrophic cells indicate that chlorophyll synthesis is not a pre-requisite for the synthesis of the LHC II apoprotein.