Isolation and molecular characterization of the gene encoding allophycocyanin B, a terminal energy acceptor in cyanobacterial phycobillsomes.

Phycobilisomes are the major constituents of the light-harvesting apparatus in both cyanobacteria and red algae and consist of a central core with radiating rods. From a genomic library of the cyanobacterium Calothrix 7601, a DNA fragment encoding allophycocyanin B, one of the two terminal energy acceptors of the core, was isolated and its nucleotide sequence was determined. Unlike all the other known genes encoding phycobiliproteins, the allophycocyanin B gene, apcD, is transcribed as a monocistronic unit. Mapping of the transcripts was performed and, in contrast to some of the Calothrix genes that encode rod components, transcription was shown to occur regardless of chromatic tight received during cell growth.