Detection of Bacteriochlorophyll-c Containing Species of Green Sulfur Photosynthetic Bacterium Chlorobium vibrioforme

Bacteriochlorophyll(BChl)-c containing species of green sulfur photosynthetic bacterium Chlorobium (ChI.) vibrioforme, which has BChl-d mainly, was detected. We obtained colonies on agar plates by spreading the liquid culture of ChI. vibrioforme f. sp. thiosulfatophilum strain NCIB 8327 which contained the high ratio of BChl-c/BChl-d, and transferred each colony into a new liquid medium. These cultures after growing were found to be classified into two categories. One possessed BChl-d as a light-harvesting pigment and the other did BChl-c. No colonies examined here contained both BChls-d and c. Therefore, the presence of both BChls-d and c in our cultures of ChI. vibrioforme was ascribed to the coexistence of two different cells which had BChl-d and c as the chlorosomal pigment, respectively. The change of pigment composition observed in our liquid cultures can be thus explained by the difference of growth rates between two kinds of cells.