Pigment organization and energy transfer in green bacteria 1. Isolation of native chlorosomes free of bound bacteriochlorophyll a from Chloroflexus aurantiacus by gel-electrophoretic filtration

Abstract

A newmethod, employing a combination of native gel electrophoresis and gel filtration which we call gel-electrophoretic filtration, has been used for the isolation of native chlorosomes from the green bacterium Chloroflexus aurantiacus . The chlorosome preparation does not contain a BChl a protein complex in contrast to chlorosomes isolated according to previous preparation methods. Due to the lack of the BChl a complex these chlorosome preparations lack also absorption and emission bands at 792–795 nm and approx. 805 nm, respectively. The implications of a chlorosome preparation without a BChl a protein complex for the understanding of the structural organization of pigments in chlorosomes are discussed.