On the role of basic residues in adapting the reaction centre-LH1 complex for growth at elevated temperatures in purple bacteria

Molecular structure and characterization of the Thermochromatium tepidum light-harvesting 1 photocomplex produced in a foreign host

Purple phototrophic bacteria possess light-harvesting 1 and reaction center (LH1-RC) core complexes that play a key role in converting solar energy to chemical energy. High-resolution structures of LH1-RC and RC complexes have been intensively studied and have yielded critical insight into the architecture and interactions of their proteins, pigments, and cofactors. Nevertheless, a detailed picture of the structure and assembly of LH1-only complexes is lacking due to the intimate association between LH1 and the RC. To study the intrinsic properties and structure of an LH1-only complex, a genetic system was constructed to express the Thermochromatium (Tch.) tepidum LH1 complex heterologously in a modified Rhodospirillum rubrum mutant strain. The heterologously expressed Tch. tepidum LH1 complex was isolated in a pure form free of the RC and exhibited the characteristic absorption properties of Tch. tepidum. Cryo-EM structures of the LH1-only complexes revealed a closed circular ring consisting of either 14 or 15 αβ-subunits, making it the smallest completely closed LH1 complex discovered thus far. Surprisingly, the Tch. tepidum LH1-only complex displayed even higher thermostability than that of the native LH1-RC complex. These results reveal previously unsuspected plasticity of the LH1 complex, provide new insights into the structure and assembly of the LH1-RC complex, and show how molecular genetics can be exploited to study membrane proteins from phototrophic organisms whose genetic manipulation is not yet possible.

Temperature dependence of photosynthetic reaction centre activity in Rhodospirillum rubrum

The influence of temperature on photosynthetic reactions was investigated by a combination of time-resolved bacteriochlorophyll fluorescence, steady-state and differential absorption spectroscopy, and polarographic respiration measurements in intact cells of purple non-sulphur bacterium Rhodospirillum rubrum. Using variable bacteriochlorophyll fluorescence, it was found that the electron-transport activity increased with the increasing temperature up to 41 °C. The fast and medium components of the fluorescence decay kinetics followed the ideal Arrhenius equation. The calculated activation energy for the fast component was E_a1 = 16 kJ mol^-1, while that of the medium component was more than double, with E_a2 = 38 kJ mol^-1. At temperatures between 41 and 59 °C, the electron transport was gradually, irreversibly inhibited. Interestingly, the primary charge separation remained fully competent from 20 to 59 °C as documented by both BChl fluorescence and differential absorption spectroscopy of the P₈₇₀⁺ signal. At temperatures above 60 °C, the primary photochemistry became reversibly inhibited, which was manifested by an increase in minimal fluorescence, F₀, whereas maximal fluorescence, F_M, slowly declined. Finally, above 71 °C, the photosynthetic complexes began to disassemble as seen in the decline of all fluorometric parameters and the disappearance of the LH1 absorption band at 880 nm. The extended optimal temperature of photosynthetic reaction centre in a model species of Rhodospirillales adds on the evidence that the good thermostability of the photosynthetic reaction centres is present across all Alphaproteobacteria.

Heterologous Production of the Photosynthetic Reaction Center and Light Harvesting 1 Complexes of the Thermophile Thermochromatium tepidum in the Mesophile Rhodobacter sphaeroides and Thermal Stability of a Hybrid Core Complex

The photosynthetic complexes of the thermophile Thermochromatium tepidum are of considerable interest in biohybrid solar cell applications because of the ability of thermophilic proteins to tolerate elevated temperatures. Synthetic operons encoding reaction center (RC) and light harvesting 1 (LH1) pigment-protein complexes of T. tepidum were expressed in the mesophile Rhodobacter sphaeroides The T. tepidum RC (TRC) was assembled and was found to be functional with the addition of menadione to populate the Q_A pocket. The production of T. tepidum LH1 (TLH1) was increased by selection of a phototrophy-capable mutant after UV irradiation mutagenesis, which yielded a hybrid RC-TLH1 core complex consisting of the R. sphaeroides RC and T. tepidum TLH1, confirmed by the absorbance peak of TLH1 at 915 nm. Affinity chromatography partial purification and subsequent sucrose gradient analysis of the hybrid RC-TLH1 core complex indicated that this core complex assembled as a monomer. Furthermore, the RC-TLH1 hybrid core complex was more tolerant of a temperature of 70°C than the R. sphaeroides RC-LH1 core complexes in both the dimeric and monomeric forms; after 1 h, the hybrid complex retained 58% of the initial starting value, compared to values of 11% and 53% for the R. sphaeroides RC-LH1 dimer and monomer forms, respectively.IMPORTANCE This work is important because it is a new approach to bioengineering of photosynthesis proteins for potential use in biophotovoltaic solar energy capture. The work establishes a proof of principle for future biohybrid solar cell applications.

The roles of C-terminal residues on the thermal stability and local heme environment of cytochrome c' from the thermophilic purple sulfur bacterium Thermochromatium tepidum

A soluble cytochrome (Cyt) c' from thermophilic purple sulfur photosynthetic bacterium Thermochromatium (Tch.) tepidum exhibits marked thermal tolerance compared with that from the closely related mesophilic counterpart Allochromatium vinosum. Here, we focused on the difference in the C-terminal region of the two Cyts c' and examined the effects of D131 and R129 mutations on the thermal stability and local heme environment of Cyt c' by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and resonance Raman (RR) spectroscopy. In the oxidized forms, D131K and D131G mutants exhibited denaturing temperatures significantly lower than that of the recombinant control Cyt c'. In contrast, R129K and R129A mutants denatured at nearly identical temperatures with the control Cyt c', indicating that the C-terminal D131 is an important residue maintaining the enhanced thermal stability of Tch. tepidum Cyt c'. The control Cyt c' and all of the mutants increased their thermal stability upon the reduction. Interestingly, D131K exhibited narrow DSC curves and unusual thermodynamic parameters in both redox states. The RR spectra of the control Cyt c' exhibited characteristic bands at 1,635 and 1,625 cm(-1), ascribed to intermediate spin (IS) and high spin (HS) states, respectively. The IS/HS distribution was differently affected by the D131 and R129 mutations and pH changes. Furthermore, R129 mutants suggested the lowering of their redox potentials. These results strongly indicate that the D131 and R129 residues play significant roles in maintaining the thermal stability and modulating the local heme environment of Tch. tepidum Cyt c'.

Ca(2+)-binding reduces conformational flexibility of RC-LH1 core complex from thermophile Thermochromatium tepidum

The light-harvesting complex, LH1, of thermophile purple bacteria Thermochromatium tepidum consists of an array of α- and β-polypeptides which assemble the photoactive bacteriochlorophyll and closely interact with the membrane-lipids. In this study, we investigated the effect of calcium and manganese ions on the protein structure and thermostability of the reaction centre (RC)-LH1/lipid complex. The binding of Ca(2+), but not Mn(2+) is shown to shift the LH1 Q ( y ) absorption maximum from ~889 to 915 nm and to significantly raise the thermostability of the RC-LH1 complex. The ATR-FTIR spectra indicate that interaction of Ca(2+) as monitored by the carboxylates' vibration of aspartate residues, but not Mn(2+) induces changes in the α-helix packing arrangement. The reduced rate of (1)H/(2)H exchange of proteins' amide protons shows that the accessibility to (2)H(2)O is significantly lowered in Ca(2+)-substituted RC-LH1/lipid complexes. In particular, exchange with the associated lipid molecules, is significantly retarded. These results suggest that the thermostability of the RC-LH1 complex is raised by the distinct interaction with calcium cations which reduces the RC-LH1/lipid dynamics, particularly, at the membrane-water interface.

Calcium ions are required for the enhanced thermal stability of the light-harvesting-reaction center core complex from thermophilic purple sulfur bacterium Thermochromatium tepidum

Thermochromatium tepidum is a thermophilic purple sulfur photosynthetic bacterium collected from the Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park. A previous study showed that the light-harvesting-reaction center core complex (LH1-RC) purified from this bacterium is highly stable at room temperature (Suzuki, H., Hirano, Y., Kimura, Y., Takaichi, S., Kobayashi, M., Miki, K., and Wang, Z.-Y. (2007) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1767, 1057-1063). In this work, we demonstrate that thermal stability of the Tch. tepidum LH1-RC is much higher than that of its mesophilic counterparts, and the enhanced thermal stability requires Ca2+ as a cofactor. Removal of the Ca2+ from Tch. tepidum LH1-RC resulted in a complex with the same degree of thermal stability as that of the LH1-RCs purified from mesophilic bacteria. The enhanced thermal stability can be restored by addition of Ca2+ to the Ca2+-depleted LH1-RC, and this process is fully reversible. Interchange of the thermal stability between the two forms is accompanied by a shift of the LH1 Qy transition between 915 nm for the native and 880 nm for the Ca2+-depleted LH1-RC. Differential scanning calorimetry measurements reveal that degradation temperature of the native LH1-RC is 15 degrees C higher and the enthalpy change is about 28% larger than the Ca2+-depleted LH1-RC. Substitution of the Ca2+ with other metal cations caused a decrease in thermal stability of an extent depending on the properties of the cations. These results indicate that Ca2+ ions play a dual role in stabilizing the structure of the pigment-membrane protein complex and in altering its spectroscopic properties, and hence provide insight into the adaptive strategy of this photosynthetic organism to survive in extreme environments using natural resources.

Excitation dynamics of two spectral forms of the core complexes from photosynthetic bacterium Thermochromatium tepidum

The intact core antenna-reaction center (LH1-RC) core complex of thermophilic photosynthetic bacterium Thermochromatium (Tch.) tepidum is peculiar in its long-wavelength LH1-Q(y) absorption (915 nm). We have attempted comparative studies on the excitation dynamics of bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) and carotenoid (Car) between the intact core complex and the EDTA-treated one with the Q(y) absorption at 889 nm. For both spectral forms, the overall Car-to-BChl excitation energy transfer efficiency is determined to be approximately 20%, which is considerably lower than the reported values, e.g., approximately 35%, for other photosynthetic purple bacteria containing the same kind of Car (spirilloxanthin). The RC trapping time constants are found to be 50 approximately 60 ps (170 approximately 200 ps) for RC in open (closed) state irrespective to the spectral forms and the wavelengths of Q(y) excitation. Despite the low-energy LH1-Q(y) absorption, the RC trapping time are comparable to those reported for other photosynthetic bacteria with normal LH1-Q(y) absorption at 880 nm. Selective excitation to Car results in distinct differences in the Q(y)-bleaching dynamics between the two different spectral forms. This, together with the Car band-shift signals in response to Q(y) excitation, reveals the presence of two major groups of BChls in the LH1 of Tch. tepidum with a spectral heterogeneity of approximately 240 cm(-1), as well as an alteration in BChl-Car geometry in the 889-nm preparation with respect to the native one.

Structural responses to cavity-creating mutations in an integral membrane protein

X-ray crystallography has been used to investigate the extent of structural changes in mutants of the purple bacterial reaction center that assemble without a particular ubiquinone or bacteriopheophytin cofactor. In the case of the bacteriopheophytin-exclusion mutant, in which Ala M149 was replaced by Trp (AM149W), the quality of protein crystals was improved over that seen in previous work by minimizing illumination, time, and temperature during the purification protocol and carrying out crystal growth at 4 degrees C after overnight incubation at 18 degrees C. The X-ray crystal structure of the AM149W mutant, determined to a resolution of 2.2 A, showed very little change in protein structure despite the absence of the bacteriopheophytin cofactor. Changes in the electron density map in the region of the cofactor binding site could be accounted for by changes in the conformation of the phytol side chains of adjacent cofactors and the presence of a buried water molecule. Residues lining the vacated binding pocket did not show any significant changes in conformation or increases in disorder as assessed through crystallographic atomic displacement parameters (B-factors). The X-ray crystal structure of a reaction center lacking the primary acceptor ubiquinone through mutation of Ala M248 to Trp (AM248W) was also determined, to a resolution of 2.8 A. Again, despite the absence of an internal cofactor only very minor changes in protein structure were observed. This is in contrast to a previous report on a reaction center lacking this ubiquinone through mutation of Ala M260 to Trp (AM260W) where more extensive changes in structure were apparent. All three mutant reaction centers showed a decrease in thermal stability when housed in the native membrane, but this decrease was smaller for the AM260W mutant than the AM248W complex, possibly due to beneficial effects of the observed changes in protein structure. The lack of major changes in protein structure despite the absence of large internal cofactors is discussed in terms of protein rigidity, the protective influence of the adaptable membrane environment, and the role of small molecules and ions as packing material in the internal cavities created by this type of mutation.

Kinetic analysis of the thermal stability of the photosynthetic reaction center from Rhodobacter sphaeroides

The temperature-induced denaturation of the photosynthetic reaction center from Rhodobacter sphaeroides has been studied through the changes that occur in the absorption spectrum of the bound chromophores on heating. At elevated temperatures, the characteristic absorbance bands of the bacteriochlorins bound to the polypeptides within the reaction center are lost, and are replaced by features typical of unbound bacteriochlorophyll and bacteriopheophytin. The kinetics of the spectral changes cannot be explained by a direct conversion from the functional to the denatured form of the protein, and require the presence of at least one intermediate. Possible mechanisms for the transformation via an intermediate are examined using a global analysis of the kinetic data, and the most likely mechanism is shown to involve a reversible transformation between the native state and an off-pathway intermediate, coupled to an irreversible transformation to the denatured state. The activation energies for the transformations between the three components are calculated from the effect of temperature on the individual rate constants, and the likely structural changes of the protein during the temperature-induced transformation are discussed.