title: In vitro assembly of R-phycoerythrin from marine red alga Polysiphonia urceolata.
abstract: Scanning tunneling microscope was used to investigate the in vitro assembly of R-phycoerythrin (R-PE) from the marine red alga Polysiphonia urceolata. The results showed that R-PE molecules assembled together by disc-to-disc while absorbing on HOPG surface, which just looked like the rods in the phycobilisomes. When the water-soluble R-PE was dissolved in 2% ethanol/water spreading solution, they could form monolayer film at the air/water interface. Similar disc-to-disc array of R-PE was constituted in the two-dimensional Langmuir-Blodgett film by the external force. It could be concluded that, apart from the key role of the linker polypeptides, the in vivo assembly of phycobiliproteins into phycobilisomes is also dependent on the endogenous properties of phycobiliprotein themselves.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China. zhangyz@life.sdu.edu.cn
authors.forename: Yu-Zhong
authors.initials: YZ
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xiu-Lan
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Lu-Shan
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Bai-Cheng
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Jin-An
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Dong-Xia
authors.initials: DX
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Shi-Jin
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Pang
mesh_terms: D008386:Marine Biology; D016252:Microscopy, Scanning Tunneling; D045524:Phycobilisomes; D010799:Phycoerythrin / Q000378:metabolism*; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D000461:Rhodophyta / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D045524:Phycobilisomes; D010940:Plant Proteins; D010799:Phycoerythrin