On the developmental dependence between Cyanophora paradoxa and Cyanocyta korschikoffiana in symbiosis : Host-dependent development of endocyanelles

The biogenesis of the cyanellae of Cyanophora paradoxa. II. Pulse-labelling of cyanellar polypeptides in the presence of transcriptional and translational inhibitors

Cycloheximide and chloroamphenicol, specific inhibitors of protein translation in the cytoplasmic and cyanellar compartments, respectively, of Cyanophora paradoxa, have been employed in 30 min pulse-labelling experiments by using [NaH-14C]O3 to label total cell proteins in vivo. Cyanellae purified from host cell lysates were separated into soluble and thylakoid fractions and analysed by one- and two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) to determine the distribution of radioactivity in the cyanellar polypeptides. Analysis of the autoradiograms of electrophoretically resolved proteins of the cyanellae indicates that about 70% of the total number of cyanellar proteins visualized in the controls are synthesized on cytoplasmic ribosomes. The majority (81%) of the soluble cyanellar proteins appear to be cytoplasmically synthesized. In contrast, the majority (70%) of the thylakoid proteins are synthesized within the cyanellae. The observations also suggest that the polypeptides synthesized within the cyanellae include species that are the most abundant and rapidly turned over. A number of the polypeptides previously identified have now been characterized with regard to their sites of synthesis. In addition, we report on labelling experiments involving rifampicin, a specific inhibitor of cyanellar transcription, which indicate that different mRNAs within the cyanellae have markedly different stabilities.

Metabolic activities in Cyanophora paradoxa and its cyanelles : II. Photosynthesis and respiration

Isolated cyanelles of Cyanophora paradoxa perform photosystem I and II dependent Hill reactions. The photosynthetic electron transport of the cyanelles does not show special features uncommon in cyanobacteria or chloroplasts of red algae. A preparation of cyanelles performs photosynthetic O2-evolution with approximately 1/3 of the rate of intact Cyanophora, in only, however, the first three minutes of the experiment. All attempts to stabilize the CO2-fixation activity of isolated cyanelles failed. Isolated cyanelles do not perform KCN-sensitive O2-uptake, indicating that respiratory cytochrome oxidase is lacking in cyanelles. O2-consumption by crude extracts from Cyanophora is inhibited by KCN when N-tetramethyl-p-phenylenediamine/ascorbate or NADH but not NADPH are supplied as the electron donors in contrast to the situation in cyanobacteria. These findings suggest that cyanelles do not respire. It is concluded that cyanelles are not so much related to cyanobacteria as formerly believed, but share many properties with chloroplasts of eukaryotic cells.