Photosynthetic characteristics and organization of chlorophyll in marine dinoflagellates.

The photosystem I reaction center complex, the P-700-chlorophyll a-protein, has been isolated from the photosynthetic membranes of two marine dinoflagellates, Gonyaulax polyedra and Glenodinium sp., by detergent solubilization with Triton X-100. The complexes isolated from the two species were indistinguishable, exhibiting identical absorption properties (400-700 nm) at both room (300 K) and low (77 K) temperature. The room temperature, red wavelength maximum was at 675 nm. The absorption properties, kinetics of photobleaching, sodium dodecyl sulfate electrophoretic mobilities, and chlorophyll a/P-700 ratio (50 +/- 10) of the P-700-chlorophyll a-protein complexes from the two species also were essentially the same and similar to those properties characterizing P-700-chlorophyll a-protein complexes of higher plants and green algae.Photosynthetic unit sizes were determined for cells grown at 1000 muW/cm(2). Both dinoflagellates had unit sizes (total chlorophyll/P-700 ratios) of about 600, even though the distribution of chlorophyll a, chlorophyll c, and peridinin in the light-harvesting components differed in Gonyaulax and Glenodinium. The number of photosynthetic units per cell in the two species correlates directly with their photosynthetic activities. A model is presented for the distribution of chlorophyll in the photosynthetic apparatus of these dinoflagellates which accounts for the known role of the isolated pigment-protein complexes and for the known photoadaptive physiology in pigmentation and photosynthesis for these species.