A spectroscopic analysis of a high fluorescent mutant of Chlamydomonas reinhardi

Chloroplast fragments of a high fluorescent mutant of Chlamydomonas reinhardi, hfd 91, were compared against those of Acl(+), a low chlorophyll variant of the wild type. The chloroplast fragments of the mutant which have a high invariant fluorescence yield lacked photochemical activities associated with photosystem II (PSII) but retained normal photosystem I (PSI) activities. The mutant fragments also lacked the low temperature (-196 degrees C) light-induced absorbance changes due to the photoreduction of C-550 and the photooxidation of cytochrome (cyt) b-559 which are PSII-mediated reactions. A fourth-derivative analysis of the absolute spectra of the chloroplast fragments at different stages of reduction (obtained with ferricyanide, ascorbate, and dithionite) showed both the oxidized and reduced forms of C-550 and the reduced forms of cyt c-553, b-559, and b-564 in wild-type fragments. The mutant fragments lacked C-550 and an ascorbate-reducible cyt b-559 but contained cyt c-553, a dithionite-reducible cyt b-559, and cyt b-564.