Occurrence and nature of chromatic adaptation in cyanobacteria

Forty-four axenic strains of cyanobacteria that synthesize phycoerythrin were screened to ascertain the effect of light quality on pigment synthesis. Cellular pigment compositions were determined after photoautotrophic growth with low light fluxes (7.0 X 10(2) ergs/cm2 per s) of green, red, and white light, and in the case of facultative heterotrophs, after dark growth at the expense of sugars. Twelve strains did not adapt chromatically: the cells contained fixed proportions of phycoerythrin, phycocyanin, and allophycocyanin under the growth conditions used. In the remaining strains, the cellular ratio of phycoerythrin to phycocyanin was much higher after growth in green than in red light. Quantitative data on the cellular pigment contents, supplemented by measurements of the differential rates of pigment synthesis on representative strains, show that chromatic adaptation may involve a light-induced modulation either of phycoerythrin synthesis alone (7 strains) or of both phycoerythrin and phycocyanin synthesis (25 strains). Facultative hetrotrophs able to adapt chromatically have a phycobiliprotein composition after dark growth which closely resembles that after growth in red light. Light quality does not affect the differential rate of chlorophyll synthesis. The physiological and taxonomic implications of these findings are discussed.