Oxidized Bacteriochlorophyll Dimer Research Articles

Identification of amino acid residues in a proton release pathway near the bacteriochlorophyll dimer in reaction centers from Rhodobacter sphaeroides.

Insight into control of proton transfer, a crucial attribute of cellular functions, can be gained from investigations of bacterial reaction centers. While the uptake of protons associated with the reduction of the quinone is well characterized, the release of protons associated with the oxidized bacteriochlorophyll dimer has been poorly understood. Optical spectroscopy and proton release/uptake measurements were used to examine the proton release characteristics of twelve mutant reaction centers, each containing a change in an amino acid residue near the bacteriochlorophyll dimer. The mutant reaction centers had optical spectra similar to wild-type and were capable of transferring electrons to the quinones after light excitation of the bacteriochlorophyll dimer. They exhibited a large range in the extent of proton release and in the slow recovery of the optical signal for the oxidized dimer upon continuous illumination. Key roles were indicated for six amino acid residues, Thr L130, Asp L155, Ser L244, Arg M164, Ser M190, and His M193. Analysis of the results points to a hydrogen-bond network that contains these residues, with several additional residues and bound water molecules, forming a proton transfer pathway. In addition to proton transfer, the properties of the pathway are proposed to be responsible for the very slow charge recombination kinetics observed after continuous illumination. The characteristics of this pathway are compared to proton transfer pathways near the secondary quinone as well as those found in photosystem II and cytochrome c oxidase.

A bound iron porphyrin is redox active in hybrid bacterial reaction centers modified to possess a four-helix bundle domain.

In this paper we report the design of hybrid reaction centers with a novel redox-active cofactor. Reaction centers perform the primary photochemistry of photosynthesis, namely the light-induced transfer of an electron from the bacteriochlorophyll dimer to a series of electron acceptors. Hybrid complexes were created by the fusion of an artificial four-helix bundle to the M-subunit of the reaction center. Despite the large modification, optical spectra show that the purified hybrid reaction centers assemble as active complexes that retain the characteristic cofactor absorption peaks and are capable of light-induced charge separation. The four-helix bundle could bind iron-protoporphyrin in either a reduced and oxidized state. After binding iron-protoporphyrin to the hybrid reaction centers, light excitation results in a new derivative signal with a maximum at 402nm and minimum at 429nm. This signal increases in amplitude with longer light durations and persists in the dark. No signal is observed when iron-protoporphyrin is added to reaction centers without the four-helix bundle domain or when a redox-inactive zinc-protoporphyrin is bound. The results are consistent with the signal arising from a new redox reaction, electron transfer from the iron-protoporphyrin to the oxidized bacteriochlorophyll dimer. These outcomes demonstrate the feasibility of binding porphyrins to the hybrid reaction centers to gain new light-driven functions.

Bound manganese oxides capable of reducing the bacteriochlorophyll dimer of modified reaction centers from Rhodobacter sphaeroides

A biohybrid model system is described that interfaces synthetic Mn-oxides with bacterial reaction centers to gain knowledge concerning redox reactions by metal clusters in proteins, in particular the Mn4CaO5 cluster of photosystem II. The ability of Mn-oxides to bind to modified bacterial reaction centers and transfer an electron to the light-induced oxidized bacteriochlorophyll dimer, P+, was characterized using optical spectroscopy. The environment of P was altered to obtain a high P/P+ midpoint potential. In addition, different metal-binding sites were introduced by substitution of amino acid residues as well as extension of the C-terminus of the M subunit with the C-terminal region of the D1 subunit of photosystem II. The Mn-compounds MnO2, αMn2O3, Mn3O4, CaMn2O4, and Mn3(PO4)2 were tested and compared to MnCl2. In general, addition of the Mn-compounds resulted in a decrease in the amount of P+ while the reduced quinone was still present, demonstrating that the Mn-compounds can serve as secondary electron donors. The extent of P+ reduction for the Mn-oxides was largest for αMn2O3 and CaMn2O4 and smallest for Mn3O4 and MnO2. The addition of Mn3(PO4)2 resulted in nearly complete P+ reduction, similar to MnCl2. Overall, the activity was correlated with the initial oxidation state of the Mn-compound. Transient optical measurements showed a fast kinetic component, assigned to reduction of P+ by the Mn-oxide, in addition to a slow component due to charge recombination. The results support the conjecture that the incorporation of Mn-oxides by ancient anoxygenic phototrophs was a step in the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis.

Binding and Energetics of Electron Transfer between an Artificial Four-Helix Mn-Protein and Reaction Centers from Rhodobacter sphaeroides.

The ability of an artificial four-helix bundle Mn-protein, P1, to bind and transfer an electron to photosynthetic reaction centers from the purple bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides was characterized using optical spectroscopy. Upon illumination of reaction centers, an electron is transferred from P, the bacteriochlorophyll dimer, to QA, the primary electron acceptor. The P1 Mn-protein can bind to the reaction center and reduce the oxidized bacteriochlorophyll dimer, P+, with a dissociation constant of 1.2 μM at pH 9.4, comparable to the binding constant of c-type cytochromes. Amino acid substitutions of surface residues on the Mn-protein resulted in increases in the dissociation constant to 8.3 μM. The extent of reduction of P+ by the P1 Mn-protein was dependent on the P/P+ midpoint potential and the pH. Analysis of the free energy difference yielded a midpoint potential of approximately 635 mV at pH 9.4 for the Mn cofactor of the P1 Mn-protein, a value similar to those found for other Mn cofactors in proteins. The linear dependence of -56 mV/pH is consistent with one proton being released upon Mn oxidation, allowing the complex to maintain overall charge neutrality. These outcomes demonstrate the feasibility of designing four-helix bundles and other artificial metalloproteins to bind and transfer electrons to bacterial reaction centers and establish the usefulness of this system as a platform for designing sites to bind novel metal cofactors capable of performing complex oxidation-reduction reactions.

Electronic structure of the Mn-cofactor of modified bacterial reaction centers measured by electron paramagnetic resonance and electron spin echo envelope modulation spectroscopies

The electronic structure of a Mn(II) ion bound to highly oxidizing reaction centers of Rhodobacter sphaeroides was studied in a mutant modified to possess a metal binding site at a location comparable to the Mn4Ca cluster of photosystem II. The Mn-binding site of the previously described mutant, M2, contains three carboxylates and one His at the binding site (Thielges et al., Biochemistry 44:389-7394, 2005). The redox-active Mn-cofactor was characterized using electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and electron spin echo envelope modulation (ESEEM) spectroscopies. In the light without bound metal, the Mn-binding mutants showed an EPR spectrum characteristic of the oxidized bacteriochlorophyll dimer and reduced quinone whose intensity was significantly reduced due to the diminished quantum yield of charge separation in the mutant compared to wild type. In the presence of the metal and in the dark, the EPR spectrum measured at the X-band frequency of 9.4 GHz showed a distinctive spin 5/2 Mn(II) signal consisting of 16 lines associated with both allowed and forbidden transitions. Upon illumination, the amplitude of the spectrum is decreased by over 80 % due to oxidation of the metal upon electron transfer to the oxidized bacteriochlorophyll dimer. The EPR spectrum of the Mn-cofactor was also measured at the Q-band frequency of 34 GHz and was better resolved as the signal was composed of the six allowed electronic transitions with only minor contributions from other transitions. A fit of the Q-band EPR spectrum shows that the Mn-cofactor is a high spin Mn(II) species (S = 5/2) that is six-coordinated with an isotropic g-value of 2.0006, a weak zero-field splitting and E/D ratio of approximately 1/3. The ESEEM experiments showed the presence of one (14)N coordinating the Mn-cofactor. The nitrogen atom is assigned to a His by comparing our ESEEM results to those previously reported for Mn(II) ions bound to other proteins and on the basis of the X-ray structure of the M2 mutant that shows the presence of only one His, residue M193, that can coordinate the Mn-cofactor. Together, the data allow the electronic structure and coordination environment of the designed Mn-cofactor in the modified reaction centers to be characterized in detail and compared to those observed in other proteins with Mn-cofactors.

Kinetics of reduction of bacteriochlorophyll dimer in reaction centers of photosynthetic bacteria

Kinetic curves of reduction of the oxidized bacteriochlorophyll dimer by the proximal heme of cytochrome in seven mutated reaction centers from Rps. viridis was measured in the temperature range of 295-10 K under an ambient potential when two high-potential hemes were reduced. The data are analyzed in frames of a model which accounts for slow medium dynamics (the diffusion-reaction equation) and the quantum effect in the modes responsible for reorganization of the cofactors and the medium. The model reproduces the observed nonexponential kinetics down to the lowest temperature where the fast kinetic component still survives. The modeling results in determination of an average characteristic time for re-orientation of dipoles of the protein matrix as a function of temperature. At temperatures above the glass-transition temperature, this function shows Arrhenius behavior with the activation energy varying between the values of 0.5 eV for wild type Rps. viridis and 0 eV for Rps. sulfoviridis found previously. Possible reasons for disappearance of the fast kinetic component in some reaction centers under study at low temperatures are discussed.

Reduction of the oxidized bacteriochlorophyll dimer in reaction centers by ferrocene is dependent upon the driving force

The rates of electron transfer from ferrocene to the oxidized bacteriochlorophyll dimer, P , in reaction centers from the purple photosynthetic bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides, were measured for a series of mutants in which the P / P + midpoint potentials range from 410 to 765 mV (Lin et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 1994; 91: 10265-10269). The observed rate constant for each mutant was found to be linearly dependent upon the ferrocene concentration up to 50 μM. The electron transfer is described as a second order reaction with rate constants increasing from 1.5 to 35 × 106 M -1. s -1 with increasing P / P + midpoint potential. This dependence was tested for three additional mutants, each of which exhibits a pH dependence of the P / P + midpoint potential due to an electrostatic interaction with an introduced carboxylic group (Williams et al. Biochemistry 2001; 40: 15403-15407). For these mutants, the pH dependence of the bimolecular rate constants followed a sigmoidal pattern that could be described with a Henderson-Hasselbalch equation, attributable to the change of the free energy difference for the reaction due to deprotonation of the introduced carboxylic side chains.

Iron as a Bound Secondary Electron Donor in Modified Bacterial Reaction Centers

The binding and oxidation of ferrous iron were studied in wild-type reaction centers and in mutants that have been modified to be both highly oxidizing and able to bind manganese [Thielges et al. (2005) Biochemistry 44, 7389-7394]. After illumination of wild-type reaction centers, steady-state optical spectroscopy showed that the oxidized bacteriochlorophyll dimer, P+, could oxidize iron but only as a second-order reaction at iron concentrations above 100 microM. In the modified reaction centers, P+ was reduced by iron in the presence of sodium bicarbonate with dissociation constants of approximately 1 microM for two mutants with different metal-binding sites. Transient optical spectroscopy showed that P+ was rapidly reduced with first-order rates of 170 and 275 s-1 for the two mutants. The dependence of the amplitude of this rate on the iron concentration yielded a dissociation constant of approximately 1 microM for both mutants, in agreement with the steady-state determination. The oxidation of bound iron by P+ was confirmed by the observation of a light-induced EPR signal centered at g values of 2.2 and 4.3 and attributed to high-spin Fe3+. Bicarbonate was required at pH 7 for low dissociation constants for both iron and manganese binding. The similarity between iron and manganese binding in these mutants provides insight into general properties of metal-binding sites in proteins.

Proton Release Due to Manganese Binding and Oxidation in Modified Bacterial Reaction Centers

The pH dependence of binding and oxidation of Mn2+ in highly oxidizing reaction centers with designed metal-binding sites was characterized by light-minus-dark optical difference spectroscopy and direct measurements of proton uptake/release. These mutants bind a Mn2+ ion that can efficiently transfer an electron to the oxidized bacteriochlorophyll dimer, as described earlier [Thielges et al. (2005) Biochemistry 44, 7389-7394]. The dissociation constant, KD, significantly increased with decreasing pH. The pH dependence of KD between pH 7 and pH 8 was consistent with the binding of Mn2+ being stabilized by the electrostatic release of two protons. The strong pH dependence of proton release upon Mn2+ binding, with a maximal release of 1.4 H+ per reaction center, was interpreted as being a result of a shift in the pKa values of the coordinating residues and possibly other nearby residues. A small amount of proton release associated with Mn2+ oxidation was observed upon illumination. These results show that functional metal-binding sites can be incorporated into proteins upon consideration of both the metal coordination and protonation states of the ligands.

Design of a Redox-Linked Active Metal Site: Manganese Bound to Bacterial Reaction Centers at a Site Resembling That of Photosystem II,

Metals bound to proteins perform a number of crucial biological reactions, including the oxidation of water by a manganese cluster in photosystem II. Although evolutionarily related to photosystem II, bacterial reaction centers lack both a strong oxidant and a manganese cluster for mediating the multielectron and proton transfer needed for water oxidation. In this study, carboxylate residues were introduced by mutagenesis into highly oxidizing reaction centers at a site homologous to the manganese-binding site of photosystem II. In the presence of manganese, light-minus-dark difference optical spectra of reaction centers from the mutants showed a lack of the oxidized bacteriochlorophyll dimer, while the reduced primary quinone was still present, demonstrating that manganese was serving as a secondary electron donor. On the basis of these steady-state optical measurements, the mutant with the highest-affinity site had a dissociation constant of approximately 1 microM. For the highest-affinity mutant, a first-order rate with a lifetime of 12 ms was observed for the reduction of the oxidized bacteriochlorophyll dimer by the bound manganese upon exposure to light. The dependence of the amplitude of this component on manganese concentration yielded a dissociation constant of approximately 1 muM, similar to that observed in the steady-state measurements. The three-dimensional structure determined by X-ray diffraction of the mutant with the high-affinity site showed that the binding site contains a single bound manganese ion, three carboxylate groups (including two groups introduced by mutagenesis), a histidine residue, and a bound water molecule. These reaction centers illustrate the successful design of a redox active metal center in a protein complex.

Correlation of proton release and electrochromic shifts of the optical spectrum due to oxidation of tyrosine in reaction centers from Rhodobacter sphaeroides.

Reaction centers from the Y(L167) mutant of Rhodobacter sphaeroides, containing a highly oxidizing bacteriochlorophyll dimer and a tyrosine residue substituted at Phe L167, were compared to reaction centers from the Y(M) mutant, with a tyrosine at M164, and a quadruple mutant containing a highly oxidizing dimer but no nearby tyrosine residue. Distinctive features in the light-induced optical and EPR spectra showed that the oxidized bacteriochlorophyll dimer was reduced by Tyr L167 in the Y(L167) mutant, resulting in a tyrosyl radical, as has been found for Tyr M164 in the Y(M) mutant. In the Y(L167) mutant, the net proton uptake after formation of the tyrosyl radical and the reduced primary quinone ranged from +0.1 to +0.3 H(+)/reaction center between pH 6 and pH 10, with a dependence that is similar to the quadruple mutant but different than the large proton release observed in the Y(M) mutant. In the light-induced absorption spectrum in the 700-1000 nm region, the Y(L167) mutant exhibited unique changes that can be assigned as arising primarily from an approximately 30 nm blue shift of the dimer absorption band. The optical signals in the Y(L167) mutant were pH dependent, with a pK(a) value of approximately 8.7, indicating that the tyrosyl radical is stabilized at high pH. The results are modeled by assuming that the phenolic proton of Tyr L167 is trapped in the protein after oxidation of the tyrosine, resulting in electrostatic interactions with the tetrapyrroles and nearby residues.

Influence of the Protein Environment on the Properties of a Tyrosyl Radical in Reaction Centers from Rhodobacter sphaeroides

The influence of the local environment on the formation of a tyrosyl radical was investigated in modified photosynthetic reaction centers from Rhodobacter sphaeroides. The reaction centers contain a tyrosine residue placed approximately 10 A from a highly oxidizing bacteriochlorophyll dimer. Measurements by both optical and electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy revealed spectral features that are assigned as arising primarily from an oxidized bacteriochlorophyll dimer at low pH values and from a tyrosyl radical at high pH values, with a well-defined transition that occurred with a pK(a) of 6.9. A model based on the wild-type structure indicated that the Tyr at M164 is likely to form a hydrogen bond with His M193 and to interact weakly with Glu M173. Substitution of Tyr or Glu for His at M193 increased the pK(a) for the transition from 6.9 to 8.9, while substitution of Gln for His M193 resulted in a higher pK(a) value. Substitution of Glu M173 with Gln resulted in loss of the partial formation of the tyrosyl that occurs in the other mutants at low pH values. The results are interpreted in terms of the ability of the residues to act as proton acceptors for the oxidized tyrosine, with the pK(a) values reflecting those of either the putative proton acceptor or the tyrosine, in accord with general models of amino acid radicals.

Direct and indirect electron transfer from cytochromes c and c2 to the photosynthetic reaction center in pigment-protein complexes isolated from Rhodocyclus gelatinosus

Electron transfer from soluble cytochromes c and c 2 to the photo-oxidized bacteriochlorophyll dimer was studied in photosynthetic reaction center (RC) complexes and RC-B870 complexes isolated from Rhodocyclus gelatinosus. In the RC-B870 complex which consists of 6 polypeptides including a bound cytochrome subunit, cytochrome c from horse heart or cytochrome c 2, from R. gelatinosus was oxidized by photo-oxidized bacteriochlorophyll dimer indirectly via cytochrome c-555 in the complex. In the RC complex which is composed of two polypeptides, the oxidized bacteriochlorophyll dimer was reduced directly by the soluble cytochromes. Although direct electron transfer from soluble cytochrome does not function in R. gelatinosus in vivo, it would replace indirect electron donation if the bound cytochrome were lost mutationally.

Kinetic studies on the reaction center protein from Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides: the temperature and free energy dependence of electron transfer between various quinones in the QA site and the oxidized bacteriochlorophyll dimer

The temperature and free energy dependence of electron transfer from the primary semiquinone (Q/sub A/sup .-/) to the oxidized bacteriochlorophyll dimer ((BChl)/sub 2//sup .+/ have been measured in the reaction center protein from Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides in which the native Q/sub A/, ubiquinone-10, has been removed and replaced by one of 11 substituted 9,10-anthraquinones, seven 1,4-naphthoquinones, 1,2-naphthoquinone, or five 1,4-benzoquinones. For 19 of these quinones an in situ midpoint potential value at 295 K for the Q/sub A//Q/sub A//sup .-/ couple was available providing a series of reaction center proteins with a variation of reaction -..delta..G/sup 0/ from 0.49 to 0.81 eV. The E/sub 1/2/ values for the remaining Q/sub As/ were estimated from measurements on quinones in solution, extending the reaction -..delta..G/sup 0/ range from 0.11 to 0.94 eV. The rates of intraprotein electron transfer from the various Q/sub A//sup .-/ molecules to (BChl)/sub 2//sup .+/ were found to be virtually independent of temperature from 5 to 100 K and, where measured, to decrease severalfold from 100 to 300k, a pattern well-known for native reaction center protein. Preliminary attempts have been made to model the observed dependence of the electron-transfer rate on the -..delta..G/sup 0/ and temperature in terms ofmore » current theories that describe electron-transfer reactions as nonadiabatic, multiphonon, nonradiative decay processes.« less

Picosecond photochemistry of a cofacial diporphyrin containing iron(III) and zinc(II): Mimicking electron transfer between cytochrome c and the primary electron donor in reaction centers of photosynthetic bacteria

Comparison of picosecond kinetic and spectroscopic data for Zn octaethylporphine and Fe(III)Cl octaethylporphine with that for Zn-Fe(III)Cl, a cofacial diporphyrin composed of a Zn porphyrin covalently bound to an Fe(III)Cl porphyrin with two chains of five atoms each, supports the assignment of a light-driven electron transfer (k > 10(11)s(-1)) within Zn-Fe(III)Cl to form [Zn(+).-Fe(II)]Cl. The kinetics (k approximately 10(10)s(-1)) and thermodynamics of the reverse electron transfer are compared to those of a similar electron transfer in bacterial photosynthesis, the reduction of an oxidized bacteriochlorophyll dimer, (BChl)(2) (+)., by Fe(II) cytochrome c.

Cytochrome b oxidation and reduction reactions in the ubiquinone-cytochrome b/c 2 oxidoreductase from Rhodopseudomonas Sphaeroides

1. The kinetics of cytochrome b reduction and oxidation in the ubiquinone-cytochrome b/c 2 oxidoreductase of chromatophores from Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides Ga have been measured both in the presence and absence of anti-mycin, after subtraction of contributions due to absorption changes from cytochrome c 2, the oxidized bacteriochlorophyll dimer of the reaction center, and a red shift of the antenna bacteriochlorophyll. 2. A small red shift of the antenna bacteriochlorophyll band centered at 589 nm has been identified and found to be kinetically similar to the carotenoid bandshift. 3. Antimycin inhibits the oxidation of ferrocytochrome b under all conditions; it also stimulates the amount of single flash activated cytochrome b reduction 3- to 4-fold under certain if not all conditions. 4. A maximum of approximately 0.6 cytochrome b-560 ( E m(7) = 50 mV, n = 1, previously cytochrome b 50) hemes per reaction center are reduced following activating flashes. This ratio suggests that there is one cytochrome b-560 heme functional per ubiquinone-cytochrome b/c 2 oxidoreductase. 5. Under the experimental conditions used here, only cytochrome b-560 is observed functional in cyclic electron transfer. 6. We describe the existence of three distinct states of reduction of the ubiquinone-cytochrome b/c 2 oxidoreductase which can be established before activation, and result in markedly different reaction sequences involving cytochrome b after the flash activation. Poising such that the special ubiquinone (Q z) is reduced and cytochrome b-560 is oxidized yields the conditions for optimal flash activated electron transfer rates through the ubiquinone-cytochrome b/c 2 oxidoreductase. However when the ambient redox state is lowered to reduce cytochrome b-560 or raised to oxidize Q z, single turnover flash induced electron transfer through the ubiquinone-cytochrome b/c 2 oxidoreductase appears impeded; the points of the impediment are tentatively identified with the electron transfer step from the reduced secondary quinone (Q II) of the reaction center to ferricytochrome b-560 and from the ferrocytochrome b-560 to oxidized Q z, respectively.