| Comments |
P.5 left column top paragraph: "The fastest-growing chemoorganotrophs have significantly higher specific growth rates than the fastest-growing photolithotrophs in both Bacteria and Eukarya. This slower growth of photosynthetic organisms apparently results from diversion of resources into the photosynthetic apparatus that can account for up to half of the cell protein (table 4 BNID 112633). A further diversion of protein, and of RNA, in that fraction of the cellular ribosomal complement (a fraction of the cytosolic ribosomes, and all of the ribosomes in the plastids) are related to the synthesis of the photosynthesis-specific proteins. In eukaryotic algae, the plastids occupy up to half of the ‘metabolic’ cell volume, i.e. excluding vacuoles, storage granules and cell walls and other extracellular structures (table 5). The situation regarding protein allocation to chemolithotrophy-specific components of the methanogenic Archaea in table 2 is less clear. Less effort seems to have been made to determine the allocation of proteins (and RNA) to synthesizing and maintaining the chemolithotrophy-specific components of the cell machinery than is the case for photolithotrophy-specific components." |