On the Requirement of Bound Bicarbonate for Photosystem II Activity

Abstract

Abstract In photosystem II of plants and cyanobacteria, but not in reaction centers of anoxygenic photosynthetic bacteria, formate is known to inhibit electron flow which is reversed fully upon bicarbonate addition. At issue has been an old controversy whether this effect is on the acceptor or the donor side of photosystem II (PS II). We present here data on chloroplast thylakoids for donor side effects, that is accompanied by acceptor side effects, from measurements on chlorophyll a fluorescence yield changes after light flashes 1-6. Further, sensitive differential infrared gas analyser measurements show that bicarbonate is indeed bound in both maize and pea thylakoid suspensions depleted of CO2 without any inhibitor; here, high rates of electron flow are associated with the presence of a maximum of 0.8 to 1.25 (corrected for residual activity) CO2 per photosystem II reaction center. It is suggested that bicarbonate bound to the acceptor side is required for photosystem II activity , both on the acceptor and the donor sides in the same experiment and in the same sample.