Chlorophyll-protein complexes of brown algae: P700 reaction centre and light-harvesting complexes

Thylakoid membranes from several brown algae have been fragmented with the non-ionic detergent, Triton X-100. Three intrinsic chlorophyll-protein complexes with different pigment compositions have been isolated by sucrose density gradient centrifugation. Brown algae contain the photosystem 1 reaction-centre complex, a P700-chlorophyll a-protein which has similar spectroscopic and chemical properties to those of higher plants. This complex represents about 10--20% of the total chlorophyll in all species; the Acrocarpia paniculata complex has a chlorophyll/P700 ratio of 38. Two main light-harvesting complexes have also been isolated, which have properties unique to brown algae. The heavier of these, an orange fraction, is a fucoxanthin-chlorophyll a/c-protein; this complex contains most of the fucoxanthin and has only chlorophyll c2. The other, a green fraction, is a chlorophyll a/c-protein enriched in violaxanthin. Neither of these complexes possesses detectable photosystem 1 or photosystem 2 activities. Both of these complexes efficiently transfer light energy to chlorophyll a, indicating that the molecular arrangement of their pigments is similar to that in vivo. Differential extraction of thylakoid membranes indicates that the P700-chlorophyll a-protein is the complex most firmly embedded in the membrane, but the fucoxanthin-chlorophyll a/c-protein is the least firmly bound. We suggest that the fucoxanthin complex is the most variable component of the photosynthetic unit of brown algal chloroplasts.