The impact of N-terminal phosphorylation on LHCII conformation in state transition

Abstract

State transition is an important protection mechanism of plants for maintaining optimal efficiency through redistributing unbalanced excitation energy between photo-system II (PSII) and photosystem I (PSI). This process depends on the reversible phosphorylation/dephosphorylation of the major light-harvesting complex II (LHCII) and its bi-directional migration between PSII and PSI. But it remains unclear how phosphorylation/dephosphorylation modulates the LHCII conformation and further regulates its reversible migration. Here molecular dynamics simulations (MDS) were employed to elucidate the impact of phosphorylation on LHCII conformation. The results indicated that N-terminal phosphorylation loosened LHCII trimer with decreased hydrogen bond (H-bond) interactions and extended the distances between neighboring monomers, which stemmed from the conformational adjustment of each monomer itself. Global conformational change of LHCII monomer started from its stromal Nterminal (including the phosphorylation sites) by enhancing its interaction to lipid membrane and by adjusting the interaction network with surrounded inter-monomer and intra-monomer transmembrane helixes of B, C, and A, and finally triggered the reorientation of transmembrane helixes and transferred the conformational change to luminal side helixes and loops. These results further our understanding in molecular mechanism of LHCII migration during state transition from the phosphorylation-induced microstructural feature of LHCII.