Enhanced hydrogen production by a mutant of Rhodobacter sphaeroides havingan altered light-harvesting system

A stable mutant of the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides wit h an altered light-harvesting (LH) system (P3 mutant) was obtained by UV ir radiation and characterized. The mutant exhibited a 2.7-fold decrease in th e core antennal (LH1) content and 1.6-fold increase in peripheral antennal (LH2) content compared to the wild-type strain. The H-2 evolution rates in the P3 mutant under 800- and 850-nm light, corresponding to the absorption maxima of LH2, were 1.5 times higher than in the wild-type strain. The wild -type absorption spectrum was restored in the P3 mutant when a 1.1-kb PCR-a mplified fragment containing the puf promoter and pufQBA genes was ligated into a pRK-415 derivative and introduced into it. The transformant showed l ower H-2 production rates at 800 and 850 nm than the P3 strain carrying the control plasmid, indicating that the accelerated H-2 production in the P3 mutant was a result of alterations in the LH system.