Letter to Nature. Iron deficiency induces the formation of an antenna ring around trimeric photosystem I in cyanobacteria.

Bibby, T.S.; Nield, J.; Barber, J.. 2001 Letter to Nature. Iron deficiency induces the formation of an antenna ring around trimeric photosystem I in cyanobacteria. Nature, 412 (6848). 743-745. 10.1038/35089098

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Abstract/Summary

Although iron is the fourth most abundant element in the Earth's crust, its concentration in the aquatic ecosystems-particularly the open oceans-is sufficiently low to limit photosynthetic activity and phytoplankton growth. Cyanobacteria, a major class of phytoplankton, respond to iron deficiency by expressing the 'iron-stress-induced' gene, isiA(ref. 3). The protein encoded by this gene has an amino-acid sequence that shows significant homology with one of the chlorophyll a-binding proteins (CP43) of photosystem II (PSII). The precise function of the CP43-like protein, here called CP43', has not been elucidated, although there have been many suggestions. Here we show that CP43' associates with photosystem I (PSI) to form a complex that consists of a ring of 18 CP43' molecules around a PSI trimer. This significantly increases the size of the light-harvesting system of PSI. The utilization of a PSII-like protein as an extra antenna for PSI emphasises the flexibility of cyanobacterial light-harvesting systems, and seems to be a strategy which compensates for the lowering of phycobilisome and PSI levels in response to iron deficiency

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	10.1038/35089098
ISSN:	0028-0836
Related URLs:	Publisher
Date made live:	23 May 2006 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/137565

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