SUMMARY Growth of Anacystis nidulans in wavelengths of light predominantly absorbed by chlorophyll a causes dramatic lowering of the chlorophyll content with only small changes in phycocyanin and carotenoids. Steady‐state growth under red photographic safe lamps produces cells with 1/4 of the chlorophyll content of cells grown under low intensities of white (tungsten) illumination. Pigment analyses permit resolution of in vivo absorption spectra into spectra of the component pigments and also the fractional absorption vs wavelenth. Even in normally pigmented cells phycocyanin is the major collector of light quanta for photosynthesis. The observed pigment control is viewed as a special case of intensity control which has chromatic character by virtue of the presence of two different pigment systems linked to the two light reactions of photosynthesis.
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Jones et al. (1965) studied this question.