Chlorophyll c
Chlorophyll c is a form of chlorophyll found in certain marine algae, including the photosynthetic Chromista (e.g. diatoms, brown algae) and dinoflagellates.
It has a blue-greenish color and is an accessory pigment, particularly significant in its absorption of light in the 447-452 nm region, Like chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b, it helps the organism gather light and passes a quanta of excitation energy through the light harvesting antennae to the photosynthetic reaction centre. Chlorophyll c is unusual because it has a porphyrin ring structure and does not have an isoprenoid tail or a reduced ring D, features typical of the other chlorophylls commonly found in algae and plants.
Chlorophyll c can be further divided into chlorophyll c1, chlorophyll c2 and chlorophyll c3, plus at least 8 other newly found subtypes.
Chlorophyll c1
Chlorophyll c1 is a common form of chlorophyll c. It differs from chlorophyll c2 in its C8 group, having an ethyl group instead of vinyl group (C-C single bond instead of C=C double bond). Its absorption maxima are around 444, 577, 626 nm and 447, 579, 629 nm in diethyl ether and acetone respectively.
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