Photo- and Metabolite Regulation of the Synthesis of Ribulose Bisphosphate Carboxylase/Oxygenase and the Phycobiliproteins in the Alga Cyanidium caldarium

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
In the eukaryotic and unicellular alga Cyanidium caldarium the synthesis of the plastid enzyme ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RuBPCase) and the light gathering proteins phycocyanin (PC) and allophycocyanin (APC) is under the control of light and glucose, which is a metabolizable carbon source for this organism. Light promotes the synthesis of these proteins while glucose has a strong inhibitory effect on this process. All subunits of the proteins mentioned above are in vitro translation products of poly (A)−-RNA (Steinmüller, Kaling, Zetsche 1983 Planta 159: 308-313). Both factors—light and glucose—exert their effects mainly by modulation of the level of translatable messenger RNA for these proteins. Under autotrophic growth conditions the level of translatable RuBPCase-, PC-, and APC-messenger RNA is high, whereas in the presence of glucose the level of these mRNAs is low or not detectable at all.

This publication has 20 references indexed in Scilit: