Isolation and characterization of the pigment-protein complexes of Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides by lithium dodecyl sulfate/polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.

When purified photosynthetic membranes from Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides were treated with lithium dodecyl sulfate and subjected to polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis at 4 degrees C, up to 11 pigment-protein complexes were resolved. Absorption spectra revealed that the smallest complex contained reaction center pigments and the others contained the antenna components B850 and B875 in various proportions. Of these antenna complexes, the largest was almost entirely B850 and the smallest contained only B875. After solubilization at 100 degrees C and electrophoresis on polyacrylamide gradient gels, the B850 complex gave rise to two polypeptide components migrating with apparent Mr of 10,000 and 8000, whereas with the B875 complex, two components were observed with apparent Mr of 12,000 and 8000. The reaction center complex gave rise to only the 24 and 21 kilodalton polypeptide subunits. Fluorescence emission spectra showed maxima at 872 and 902 nm for B850 and B875, respectively. Analyses of bacteriochlorophyll a and carotenoids indicated that, in the B875 complex, two molecules of each of these pigments are associated with the two polypeptides. The associations of B850 and B875 in large and small complexes obtained by lithium dodecyl sulfate treatment are consistent with models of their organization within the membrane.