Requirement of the light-harvesting pigment.protein complex for magnesium ion regulation of excitation energy distribution in chloroplasts

Organization of the photosynthetic apparatus of the chlorina-f2 mutant of barley using chlorophyll fluorescence decay kinetics

The time-resolved chlorophyll fluorescence emission of higher plant chloroplasts monitors the primary processes of photosynthesis and reflects photosynthetic membrane organization. In the present study we compare measurements of the chlorophyll fluorescence decay kinetics of the chlorophyll-b-less chlorina-f2 barley mutant and wild-type barley to investigate the effect of alterations in thylakoid membrane composition on chlorophyll fluorescence. Our analysis characterizes the fluorescence decay of chlorina-f2 barley chloroplasts by three exponential components with lifetimes of approx. 100 ps, 400 ps and 2 ns. The majority of the chlorophyll fluorescence originates in the two faster decay components. Although photo-induced and cation-induced effects on fluorescence yields are evident, the fluorescence lifetimes are independent of the state of the Photosystem-II reaction centers and the degree of grana stacking. Wild-type barley chloroplasts also exhibit three kinetic fluorescence components, but they are distinguished from those of the chlorina-f2 chloroplasts by a slow decay component which displays cation- and photo-induced yield and lifetime changes. A comparison is presented of the kinetic analysis of the chlorina-f2 barley fluorescence to the decay kinetics previously measured for intermittent-light-grown peas (Karukstis, K. and Sauer, K. (1983) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 725, 384-393). We propose that similarities in the fluorescence decay kinetics of both species are a consequence of analogous rearrangements of the thylakoid membrane organization due to the deficiencies present in the light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b complex.

Investigations of the role of the main light-harvesting chlorophyll-protein complex in thylakoid membranes. Reconstitution of depleted membranes from intermittent-light-grown plants with the isolated complex

The functions of the light-harvesting complex of photosystem II (LHC-II) have been studied using thylakoids from intermittent-light-grown (IML) plants, which are deficient in this complex. These chloroplasts have no grana stacks and only limited lamellar appression in situ. In vitro the thylakoids showed limited but significant Mg2+-induced membrane appression and a clear segregation of membrane particles into such regions. This observation, together with the immunological detection of small quantities of LHC-II apoproteins, suggests that the molecular mechanism of appression may be similar to the more extensive thylakoid stacking seen in normal chloroplasts and involve LHC-II polypeptides directly. To study LHC-II function directly, a sonication-freeze-thaw procedure was developed for controlled insertion of purified LHC-II into IML membranes. Incorporation was demonstrated by density gradient centrifugation, antibody agglutination tests, and freeze-fracture electron microscopy. The reconstituted membranes, unlike the parent IML membranes, exhibited both extensive membrane appression and increased room temperature fluorescence in the presence of cations, and a decreased photosystem I activity at low light intensity. These membranes thus mimic normal chloroplasts in this regard, suggesting that the incorporated LHC-II interacts with photosystem II centers in IML membranes and exerts a direct role in the regulation of excitation energy distribution between the two photosystems.

Freeze-fracture studies on barley plastid membranes. VI. Location of the P700-chlorophyll a-protein 1

The photosystem I mutant of barley, viridis-zb63, which totally lacks the P700-chlorophyll a-protein 1 was characterised by rotary shadowed, freeze-fracture electron microscopy. Objective measurements were made of particle density and size distribution for all four fracture faces, and compared with values for wild-type. A highly significant reduction in the size of the PFu particles was found, which could be attributed to the loss of a population of large particles from the mutant PFu face. A corresponding loss of EFu pits was also observed. It is concluded that the photosystem I reaction centre and two or three ancillary polypeptides are located in the large PFu particles which account for two-thirds of the total, and that these particles span the membrane. Since no differences were seen on the PFs and EFs faces, there was no evidence for the localisation of any photosystem I in appressed granal membranes, supporting the concept of extreme lateral heterogeneity. A model is presented of the localisation of different functional polypeptide units to different freeze-fracture particles within the membrane. A peculiar feature of viridis-zb63 thylakoids was the presence of EFs particle arrays in vivo.

Effect of cations on the linear dichroism and selective polarized light scattering of thylakoids

The effect of cations on the linear dichroism (LD) and selective polarized light scattering of higher plant thylakoids was investigated. The results show that the major change in LD signal caused by the addition of cations is due to a scattering contribution most probably resulting from thylakoid stacking. However, minor changes in the LD signal also occur on the short wavelength side of the main LD band that persist even when a large proportion of the scattering change is eliminated by increasing the refractive index of the medium. The minor changes appear to be correlated with the cation-induced increase in variable fluorescence and resolution of the spectra at 77 K reveals that the changes in dichroism are due to LD bands of pigments associated with the light-harvesting complex.

Chloroplast phosphoproteins: regulation of excitation energy transfer by phosphorylation of thylakoid membrane polypeptides

Incubation of isolated chloroplast thylakoid membranes with [gamma-32P]ATP results in phosphorylation of surface-exposed segments of several membrane proteins. The incorporation of 32P is light dependent, is blocked by 3(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-1,1-dimethylurea (diuron, an inhibitor of electron transport), but is insensitive to uncouplers of photophosphorylation. Polypeptides of the light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b-protein complex are the major phosphorylated membrane proteins. Addition of ATP to isolated chloroplast thylakoid membranes at 20 degrees C results in a time-dependent reduction of chlorophyll fluorescence emission; this is blocked by diuron but not by nigericin. ADP could not substitute for ATP. Chlorophyll fluorescence induction transients showed a decrease in the variable component after incubation of the membranes with ATP. Chlorophyll fluorescence at 77 K of phosphorylated thylakoid membranes showed an increase in long-wavelength emission compared with dephosphorylated controls. We conclude that a membrane-bound protein kinase can phosphorylate surface-exposed segments of the light-harvesting pigment-protein complex, altering the properties of its interaction with the two photosystems such that the distribution of absorbed excitation energy increasingly favors photosystem I.

Picosecond time-resolved fluorescence study of chlorophyll organisation and excitation energy distribution in chloroplasts from wild-type barley and a mutant lacking chlorophyll b

Picosecond time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy has been used to investigate the fluorescence emission from wild-type barley chloroplasts and from chloroplasts of the barley mutant, chlorina f-2, which lacks the light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b-protein complex. Cation-controlled regulation of the distribution of excitation energy was studied in isolated chloroplasts at the Fo and Fm levels. It was found that: (a) The fluorescence decay curves were distinctly non-exponential, even at low excitation intensities (less than 2 x 10(14) photons . cm(-2). (b) The fluorescence decay curves could, however, be described by a dual exponential decay law. The wild-type barley chloroplasts gave a short-lived fluorescence component of approximately 140 ps and a long-lived component of 600 ps (Fo) or 1300 ps (Fm) in the presence of Mg2+; in comparison, the mutant barley yielded a short-lived fluorescence component of approx. 50 ps and a long-lived component of 194 ps (Fo) and 424 ps (Fm). (c) The absence of the light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b-protein complex in the mutant results in a low fluorescence quantum yield which is unaffected by the cation composition of the medium. (d) The fluorescence yield changes seen in steady-state experiments on closing Photosystem II reaction centres (Fm/Fo) or on the addition of MgCl2 (+Mg2+/-Mg2+) were in overall agreement with those calculated from the time-resolved fluorescence measurements. The results suggest that the short-lived fluorescence component is partly attributable to the chlorophyll a antenna of Photosystem I, and, in part, to those light-harvesting-Photosystem II pigment combinations which are strongly coupled to the Photosystem I antenna chlorophyll. The long-lived fluorescence component can be ascribed to the light-harvesting-Photosystem II pigment combinations not coupled with the antenna of Photosystem I. In the case of the mutant, the two components appear to be the separate emissions from the Photosystem I and Photosystem II antenna chlorophylls.