Robert E Blankenship

..It is emerging as a genetically amenable model organism for molecular genetic analysis of cyst formation, photosynthesis, phototaxis, and cellular development. Here, we present an analysis of the genome of this bacterium...

..We consider opportunities in which the frontiers of synthetic biology might be used to enhance natural photosynthesis for improved solar energy conversion efficiency...

..Moreover, in contrast to (Si)-citrate synthase, (Re)-citrate synthase produces a different isomer of 2-fluorocitrate that is not expected to inhibit the activity of aconitase...

..Along with the genomic information reported recently, we use multiple experimental approaches in this report to address questions regarding energy metabolic pathways in darkness, CO2 fixation, sugar assimilation and acetate metabolism...

..Moreover, CO(2) is essential for assimilating acetate and pyruvate through the CO(2)-anaplerotic pathway and pyruvate synthesis from acetyl-CoA...

..The assembly of the FMO protein and also the implications of the decreased FMO/chlorosome stoichiometry are discussed in terms of the topology of these two antennas on the cytoplasmic membrane...

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..A preliminary structural model of ACIII is proposed on the basis of the analytical data and chemical cross-linking in tandem with mass analysis using MALDI-TOF, as well as transmembrane and transit peptide analysis...

..The recombinant protein exhibits a single redox midpoint potential of +71mV versus NHE, which indicates that the two hemes have very similar protein environments...

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..Global and single wavelength fitting of the ultrafast spectral and temporal data sets of the carotenoids in solvents and in the LHRC revealed the pathways of de-excitation of the carotenoid excited states...

..Cfl. aurantiacus contains a chimeric photosystem that comprises some characters of green sulfur bacteria and purple photosynthetic bacteria, and also has some unique electron transport proteins compared to other photosynthetic bacteria...

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..In contrast to the nutritional flexibility of many anoxygenic phototrophs, the complete genome sequence of H. modesticaldum reveals an organism with a notable degree of metabolic specialization and genomic reduction...

..Comparisons of these and other properties of isolated Roseiflexus castenholzii RCs to those from its close relative Chloroflexus aurantiacus and to RCs from the purple bacteria are made...

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..The results indicate that the CsmA protein interacts with the Bchl a #1 side of the FMO protein. A global picture including peptide-level details for the architecture of the photosystem from green-sulfur bacteria can now be drawn...

..denitrificans; and (4) isoleucine can be synthesized from both threonine-dependent (20% total flux) and citramalate-dependent (80% total flux) pathways using pyruvate as the sole carbon source...

..The approach provides not only top-down proteomics information of the complex subunits but also structural insights complementary to those obtained by ion mobility...

..Its potential role in electron transfer processes is discussed...

..The lack of sensitivity to common inhibitors of the cytochrome bc1 complex indicates a different catalytic mechanism for the ACIII complex...

..On the other hand, such properties favor some of the Cars, particularly spirilloxanthin (N=13) to play the role of the direct quencher of the excited singlet state of BChl...

..Finally, two populations of chlorosome particles are suggested in our SANS measurements...

..The identities of electron carriers that enable energy conservation by cyclic light-driven electron transfer remain in question...

..According to results obtained from transient absorption spectroscopy, the B800 band split originates from two spectral forms of the associated BChl a monomeric molecules bound within the same complex...

..aurantiacus and Chlorobium tepidum are most closely related to those found in the delta-proteobacteria. The purified enzyme was crystallized and X-ray diffraction data obtained up to 3.2 A resolution...

..The antenna pigments spectroscopically resemble the well-studied LH2 complex from purple bacteria, however the close association with the RC makes the light harvesting component of this complex functionally more like LH1...

..tepidum) and give information on the packing of the FMO protein in its native environment...

..Since the proposed enzymatic activity of AcsF requires molecular oxygen, our studies suggest that the roles of AcsF in C. aurantiacus need to be investigated further...

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..Our learning experience provides a new instructional model for understanding a little investigated aspect of photosynthesis and connects to authentic scientific research...

..Modeling of the data suggests that the two populations contain 1-2 BChl and 5-6 BChl a molecules and that thermal equilibrium effects modulate the relative population of the two emitting states...

..The results show that the core complex of Roseiflexus castenholzii contains characteristics of both purple bacteria and Chloroflexus aurantiacus...

..Pigment analysis showed a peridinin-to-Chl a ratio of 4. The peridinin-to-Chl a Q(y) energy transfer efficiency is 95% in this complex...

..We conclude that fluorescence modulation in H. modesticaldum results from acceptor-side limitation in the reaction center (RC), possibly due to charge recombination between P(800) (+) and A(0) (-)...

..2) than in acetate culture (Y(X/S) = 6.4), but the biomass growth rate was slower in pyruvate culture than in acetate culture...

..Absorption and fluorescence spectra of the deposited LHCs were measured. It was observed that the LHCs have light absorption and fluorescence spectra similar to that in solution, demonstrating the viability of the process...

..This expression completes the precision analysis for single-image 3D localization of individual fluorophores and lifts the temporal resolution to the typical exposure timescales of milliseconds...

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..aurantiacus RC that better explains the observed results...