Effect of Carotenoides on the in vitro Aggregation of Bacteriochlorophyll e

In order to investigate effect of the carotenoids (Car) on aggregation of Bacterochlorophyll (BChl) in chlorosome, we studied the spectral difference in aggregates of BChl e formed in the absence and presence of a few kinds of Car in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) -water solution. The absorption spectra of aggregates made of only BChl e and those made of a mixture of BChl e and Car were almost the same. However, the kinetics and circular dichroism (CD) spectra of aggregate of these were markedly different by kind of Car. Specifically, the rate of aggregation for a mixture of BChl e and isorenietene that contains phenyl as end groupe was faster than that for only BChl e. CD spectra of aggregates made of a mixture of BChl e and isorenietene dramatically changed compared to that made of only BChl e. We propose that BChl might form several kinds of rod-like supramolecular structures to in the presence of some kind of Car in chlorosome.