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The Journal of General Physiology, Vol 25, 579-595, Copyright © 1942 by The Rockefeller University Press

ARTICLE

THE PHOTOSYNTHETIC EFFICIENCY OF PHYCOCYANIN IN CHROOCOCCUS, AND THE PROBLEM OF CAROTENOID PARTICIPATION IN PHOTOSYNTHESIS

Robert Emerson 1 and Charlton M. Lewis 1

1 From the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Division of Plant Biology, Stanford University

The absorption spectra of the principal pigment components extracted from Chroococcus cells have been measured, and their sum compared with the absorption of a suspension of living cells. The agreement was sufficiently close so that it was concluded the absorption spectra of the extracted and separated pigment components could be used to obtain estimates of the relative absorption of the various components in the living cells.

The quantum yield of Chroococcus photosynthesis was measured at a succession of wave lengths throughout the visible spectrum, and the dependence of yield on wave length was compared with the proportions of light absorbed by the pigment components. This comparison showed beyond reasonable doubt that the light absorbed by phycocyanin is utilized in photosynthesis with an efficiency approximately equal to that of the light absorbed by chlorophyll. The light absorbed by the carotenoid pigments of Chroococcus seems for the most part to be unavailable for photosynthesis. The results leave open the possibility that light absorbed by the carotenoids is active in photosynthesis, but with an efficiency considerably lower than that of chlorophyll and phycocyanin. It is also possible that the light absorbed by one or a few of the several carotenoid components is utilized with a high efficiency, while the light absorbed by most of the components is lost for photosynthesis.

Submitted on December 11, 1941


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H. H. Strain
Cellular Opacity and the Activity of Chloroplast Pigments in Photosynthesis
Science, August 11, 1950; 112(2902): 161 - 164.
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