Genetic Analysis of the Cyanobacterial Light-Harvesting Antenna Complex

To harvest light energy the cyanobacteria have developed supramolecular structures called phycobilisomes. These fan-like structures, regularly arrayed and perpendicularly attached to the protoplasmic surface of the photosynthetic membranes (thylakoids), funnel photons primarily into the photosystem II reaction centers which contain the chlorophyll a-protein complexes. Phycobilisomes are water soluble complexes made up of at least twelve different structural proteins accounting for up to 50% of the total cell protein. In these complexes, the major proteins are phycobiliproteins whose correct assembly into functional phycobilisomes depends upon linker polypeptides.1