The structure of chromatophores from purple photosynthetic bacteria fused with lipid-impregnated collodion films determined by near-field scanning optical microscopy.

Lipid-impregnated collodion (nitrocellulose) films have been frequently used as a fusion substrate in the measurement and analysis of electrogenic activity in biological membranes and proteoliposomes. While the method of fusion of biological membranes or proteoliposomes with such films has found a wide application, little is known about the structures formed after the fusion. Yet, knowledge of this structure is important for the interpretation of the measured electric potential. To characterize structures formed after fusion of membrane vesicles (chromatophores) from the purple bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides with lipid-impregnated collodion films, we used near-field scanning optical microscopy. It is shown here that structures formed from chromatophores on the collodion film can be distinguished from the lipid-impregnated background by measuring the fluorescence originating either from endogenous fluorophores of the chromatophores or from fluorescent dyes trapped inside the chromatophores. The structures formed after fusion of chromatophores to the collodion film look like isolated (or sometimes aggregated, depending on the conditions) blisters, with diameters ranging from 0.3 to 10 microm (average approximately 1 microm) and heights from 0.01 to 1 microm (average approximately 0.03 microm). These large sizes indicate that the blisters are formed by the fusion of many chromatophores. Results with dyes trapped inside chromatophores reveal that chromatophores fused with lipid-impregnated films retain a distinct internal water phase.