Abstract
Green sulfur bacteria and heliobacteria are strictly anaerobic phototrophs that have homodimeric type 1 reaction center complexes. Within these complexes, highly reducing substances are produced through an initial charge separation followed by electron transfer reactions driven by light energy absorption. In order to attain efficient energy conversion, it is important for the photooxidized reaction center to be rapidly rereduced. Green sulfur bacteria utilize reduced inorganic sulfur compounds (sulfide, thiosulfate, and/or sulfur) as electron sources for their anoxygenic photosynthetic growth. Membrane-bound and soluble cytochromes c play essential roles in the supply of electrons from sulfur oxidation pathways to the P840 reaction center. In the case of gram-positive heliobacteria, the photooxidized P800 reaction center is rereduced by cytochrome c-553 (PetJ) whose N-terminal cysteine residue is modified with fatty acid chains anchored to the cytoplasmic membrane.
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Abbreviations
- Bchl:
-
Bacteriochlorophyll
- Cyt:
-
Cytochrome
- ET:
-
Electron transfer
- FAP:
-
Filamentous anoxygenic phototroph
- P840:
-
Primary electron donor made of a special pair of bacteriochlorophylls a in the green sulfur bacterial RC
- P800:
-
Primary electron donor made of a special pair of bacteriochlorophylls g in the heliobacterial RC
- PS I:
-
Photosystem I
- PS II:
-
Photosystem II
- RC:
-
Reaction center
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Acknowledgments
This study was financially supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) (No. 21570168) (to H.O.) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan and by postdoctoral fellowships from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (No. 211578 to C.A, No. 181481 to Y.T.).
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In this review, the old species names of green sulfur bacteria were transcribed to new ones according to Imhoff’s definition (Imhoff 2003).
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Azai, C., Tsukatani, Y., Itoh, S. et al. C-type cytochromes in the photosynthetic electron transfer pathways in green sulfur bacteria and heliobacteria. Photosynth Res 104, 189–199 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-009-9521-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-009-9521-4