Mechanisms of Energy Transduction in Plant Photosynthesis: ESR, ENDOR and MOs of the Primary Acceptors

A dimeric chlorophyll electron acceptor differentiates type I from type II photosynthetic reaction centers

This research addresses one of the most compelling issues in the field of photosynthesis, namely, the role of the accessory chlorophyll molecules in primary charge separation. Using a combination of empirical and computational methods, we demonstrate that the primary acceptor of photosystem (PS) I is a dimer of accessory and secondary chlorophyll molecules, Chl_2A and Chl_3A, with an asymmetric electron charge density distribution. The incorporation of highly coupled donors and acceptors in PS I allows for extensive delocalization that prolongs the lifetime of the charge-separated state, providing for high quantum efficiency. The discovery of this motif has widespread implications ranging from the evolution of naturally occurring reaction centers to the development of a new generation of highly efficient artificial photosynthetic systems.

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Two-dimensional HYSCORE spectroscopy reveals a histidine imidazole as the axial ligand to Chl3A in the M688HPsaA genetic variant of Photosystem I

Recent studies on Photosystem I (PS I) have shown that the six core chlorophyll a molecules are highly coupled, allowing for efficient creation and stabilization of the charge-separated state. One area of particular interest is the identity and function of the primary acceptor, A₀, as the factors that influence its ultrafast processes and redox properties are not yet fully elucidated. It was recently shown that A₀ exists as a dimer of the closely-spaced Chl₂/Chl₃ molecules wherein the reduced A₀^- state has an asymmetric distribution of electron spin density that favors Chl₃. Previous experimental work in which this ligand was changed to a hard base (histidine, M688H_PsaA) revealed severely impacted electron transfer processes at both the A₀ and A₁ acceptors; molecular dynamics simulations further suggested two distinct conformations of PS I in which the His residue coordinates and forms a hydrogen bond to the A₀ and A₁ cofactors, respectively. In this study, we have applied 2D HYSCORE spectroscopy in conjunction with molecular dynamics simulations and density functional theory calculations to the study of the M688H_PsaA variant. Analysis of the hyperfine parameters demonstrates that the His imidazole serves as the axial ligand to the central Mg²⁺ ion in Chl_3A in the M688H_PsaA variant. Although the change in ligand identity does not alter delocalization of electron density over the Chl₂/Chl₃ dimer, a small shift in the asymmetry of delocalization, coupled with the electron withdrawing properties of the ligand, most likely accounts for the inhibition of forward electron transfer in the His-ligated conformation.

Theoretical Determination of the Standard Reduction Potentials of Pheophytin-ainN,N-Dimethyl Formamide and Membrane

Quantum mechanical/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) calculations were performed on the neutral, anionic, and dianionic forms of Pheophytin-a (Pheo-a) in N,N-dimethyl formamide (DMF) in order to calculate the absolute free energy of reduction of Pheo-a in solution. The geometry of the solvated species was optimized by restricted open-shell density functional treatment (ROB3LYP) using the 6-31G(d) basis set for the molecular species while the primary solvent shell consisting of 45 DMF molecules was treated by the MM method using the universal force field (UFF). Electronic energies of the neutral, anionic, and dianionic species were obtained by carrying out single point density functional theory (DFT) calculations using the 6-311+G(2d,2p) basis set on the respective ONIOM optimized geometries. The CHARMM27 force field was used to account for the dynamical nature of the primary solvation shell of 45 DMF molecules. In the calculations using solvent shells, the required atomic charges for each solvent molecule were obtained from ROB3LYP/6-31G(d) calculation on a single isolated DMF molecule. Randomly sampled configurations generated by the Monte Carlo (MC) technique were used to determine the contribution of the primary shell to the free energy of solvation of the three species. The dynamical nature of the primary shell significantly corrects the free energy of solvation. Frequency calculations at the ROB3LYP/6-31G(d) level were carried out on the optimized geometries of truncated 47-atom models of the neutral and ionic species in vacuum so as to determine the differences in thermal energy and molecular entropy. The Born energy of ion-dielectric interaction, the Onsager energy of dipole-dielectric interaction, and the Debye-Hückel energy of ion-ionic cloud interaction for the pheophytin-solvent aggregate were added as perturbative corrections. The Born interaction also makes a large contribution to the absolute free energy of reduction. An implicit solvation model (DPCM) was also employed for the calculation of standard reduction potentials in DMF. Both the models were successful in reproducing the standard reduction potentials. An explicit solvent treatment(QM/MM/MC + Born + Onsager + Debye corrections) yielded the one electron reduction potential of Pheo-a as -0.92 +/- 0.27 V and the two electron reduction potential as -1.34 +/- 0.25 V at 298.15 K, while the implicit solvent treatment yielded the corresponding values as -1.03 +/- 0.17 and -1.30 +/- 0.17 V, respectively. The calculated values more or less agree with the experimental midpoint potentials of -0.90 and -1.25 V, respectively. Moreover, a numerical finite difference Poisson-Boltzmann solver (FDPB) along with the DPCM methodology was employed to obtain the reduction potential of pheophytin in the thylakoid membrane. The calculated reduction potential value of -0.58 V is in excellent agreement with the reported value -0.61 V.

ENDOR studies of the intermediate electron acceptor radical anion I-. in Photosystem II reaction centers

The EPR and ENDOR characteristics of the intermediate electron acceptor radical anion I-. in Photosystem II (PS II) are shown to be identical in membrane particles and in the D1D2 cytochrome b-559 complex (Nanba, O. and Satoh, K. (1987) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 84, 109-112). These findings provide further evidence that the D1D2 complex is the reaction center of PS II and show that the pheophytin binding site is intact. A hydrogen bond between I-. and the protein (GLU D1-130) is postulated on the basis of D2O exchange experiments. The ENDOR data of I-. and of the pheophytin a radical anion in different organic solvents are compared and the observed differences are related to structural changes of the molecule on the basis of molecular orbital calculations (RHF-INDO/SP). The importance of the orientation of the vinyl group (attached to ring I) on electron transfer is discussed.