SPECTROCHROMATOGRAPHY OF PHOTOSYNTHETIC PIGMENTS AS A FINGERPRINTING TECHNIQUE FOR MICROBIAL PHOTOTROPHS

The combination of chromatographic separation using reverse-phase high -performance liquid chromatography and continuous monitoring of the co lumn eluate using a diode-array spectrophotometer allowed qualitative and quantitative pigment profiling of extracts of photosynthetic mater ial in a single run. Carotenoids and the spectrally distinct types of chlorophyll and bacteriochlorophyll can be unambiguously identified ev en when imperfectly separated bn the column. The resulting spectrochro matogram is a fingerprint useful for the rapid characterization of pur e cultures or mixed populations. We have developed software to allow r ecording, manipulation, and presentation of the resulting spectrochrom atograms and present results from photosynthetic microbes in pure and mixed cultures. We describe a number of approaches to the presentation of the resulting data in a readily comprehensible form.