Ferredoxin-dependent bilin reductases in eukaryotic algae: Ubiquity and diversity.

ABSTRACT: Linear tetrapyrroles (bilins) are produced from heme by heme oxygenase, usually forming biliverdin IXα (BV). Fungi and bacteria use BV as chromophore for phytochrome photoreceptors. Oxygenic photosynthetic organisms use BV as a substrate for ferredoxin-dependent bilin reductases (FDBRs), enzymes that produce diverse reduced bilins used as light-harvesting pigments in phycobiliproteins and as photoactive photoreceptor chromophores. Bilin biosynthesis is essential for phototrophic growth in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii despite the absence of phytochromes or phycobiliproteins in this organism, raising the possibility that bilins are more generally required for phototrophic growth by algae. We here leverage the recent expansion in available algal transcriptomes, cyanobacterial genomes, and enviro

SUBMITTER: Rockwell NC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5603387 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature