Improvement of Photoheterotrophic Hydrogen Production of Rhodobacter sphaeroides by Removal of B800-850 Light-Harvesting Complex

The photoheterotrophic $H_2$ production of Rhodobacter sphaeroides was significantly increased through disruption of the genes coding for uptake hydrogenase and poly-${\beta}$-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) synthase (Lee et al., Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 60: 147-153, 2002). In this work, we further removed the B800-850 light-harvesting (LH) complex from the strain and found an increase in $H_2$ production at the light-saturating cell growth (${\ge}10$ Watts $[W]/m^2$). Neither the mutant nor the wild-type produced more $H_2$ at the brighter light. Accordingly, light does not appear to be limited for the $H_2$ production by the presence of B800-850. However, increase in the level of the spectral complexes resulted in decrease of $H_2$ production. Thus, although the B875 is essential for light harvesting, the consumption of cellular energy for the synthesis of B800-850 and the surplus LH complexes may reduce the energy flow into the $H_2$ production of R. sphaeroides.