Biological pigment symbiosis Trididemnum solidum, their colors are different depending on the light regime in which they live. The colonies that are exposed to full sunlight are heavily calcified, thicker, and are white. In contrast the colonies that live in shaded areas have more phycoerythrin (pigment that absorbs green) in comparison to phycocyanin (pigment that absorbs red), thinner, and are purple. The purple color in the shaded colonies are mainly due to the phycobilin pigment of the algae, meaning the variation of exposure in light changes the colors of these colonies. Aposematism is the warning coloration to signal potential predators to stay
Photosynthetic pigment other groups of bacteria use the bacteriochlorophyll pigments (similar to the chlorophylls) for photosynthesis. Unlike the cyanobacteria, these bacteria do not produce oxygen; they typically use hydrogen sulfide rather than water as the electron donor. Recently, a very different pigment has been found in some marine γ-proteobacteria: proteorhodopsin. It is similar to and probably originated from bacteriorhodopsin (see below: under Archaea). Bacterial chlorophyll b has been isolated from Rhodopseudomonas spp. but its structure is not yet known to us. Halobacteria use the pigment bacteriorhodopsin which acts directly as a proton pump when exposed to light. Photosynthetic pigment A photosynthetic pigment