How water-soluble chlorophyll protein extracts chlorophyll from membranes

Brassica napus Drought-Induced 22-kD Protein (BnD22) Acts Simultaneously as a Cysteine Protease Inhibitor and Chlorophyll-Binding Protein

Class II water-soluble chlorophyll proteins (WSCPs) from Brassicaceae are non-photosynthetic proteins that bind with chlorophyll (Chl) and its derivatives. The physiological function of WSCPs is still unclear, but it is assumed to be involved in stress responses, which is likely related to their Chl-binding and protease inhibition (PI) activities. Yet, the dual function and simultaneous functionality of WSCPs must still be better understood. Here, the biochemical functions of Brassica napus drought-induced 22-kDa protein (BnD22), a major WSCP expressed in B. napus leaves, were investigated using recombinant hexahistidine-tagged protein. We showed that BnD22 inhibited cysteine proteases, such as papain, but not serine proteases. BnD22 was able to bind with Chla or Chlb to form tetrameric complexes. Unexpectedly, BnD22-Chl tetramer displays higher inhibition toward cysteine proteases, indicating (i) simultaneous Chl-binding and PI activities and (ii) Chl-dependent activation of PI activity of BnD22. Moreover, the photostability of BnD22-Chl tetramer was reduced upon binding with the protease. Using three-dimensional structural modeling and molecular docking, we revealed that Chl binding favors interaction between BnD22 and proteases. Despite its Chl-binding ability, the BnD22 was not detected in chloroplasts but rather in the endoplasmic reticulum and vacuole. In addition, the C-terminal extension peptide of BnD22, which cleaved off post-translationally in vivo, was not implicated in subcellular localization. Instead, it drastically promoted the expression, solubility and stability of the recombinant protein.

Magnetophotoselection in the Investigation of Excitonically Coupled Chromophores: The Case of the Water-Soluble Chlorophyll Protein

A magnetophotoselection (MPS) investigation of the photoexcited triplet state of chlorophyll a both in a frozen organic solvent and in a protein environment, provided by the water-soluble chlorophyll protein (WSCP) of Lepidium virginicum, is reported. The MPS experiment combines the photoselection achieved by exciting with linearly polarized light with the magnetic selection of electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy, allowing the determination of the relative orientation of the optical transition dipole moment and the zero-field splitting tensor axes in both environments. We demonstrate the robustness of the proposed methodology for a quantitative description of the excitonic interactions among pigments. The orientation of the optical transition dipole moments determined by the EPR analysis in WSCP, identified as an appropriate model system, are in excellent agreement with those calculated in the point-dipole approximation. In addition, MPS provides information on the electronic properties of the triplet state, localized on a single chlorophyll a pigment of the protein cluster, in terms of orientation of the zero-field splitting tensor axes in the molecular frame.

Towards a quantitative description of excitonic couplings in photosynthetic pigment-protein complexes: quantum chemistry driven multiscale approaches

A structure-based quantitative calculation of excitonic couplings between photosynthetic pigments has to describe the dynamical polarization of the protein/solvent environment of the pigments, giving rise to reaction field and screening effects. Here, this challenging problem is approached by combining the fragment molecular orbital (FMO) method with the polarizable continuum model (PCM). The method is applied to compute excitonic couplings between chlorophyll a (Chl a) pigments of the water-soluble chlorophyll-binding protein (WSCP). By calibrating the vacuum dipole strength of the 0–0 transition of the Chl a chromophores according to experimental data, an excellent agreement between calculated and experimental linear absorption and circular dichroism spectra of WSCP is obtained. The effect of the mutual polarization of the pigment ground states is calculated to be very small. The simple Poisson-Transition-charge-from-Electrostatic-potential (Poisson-TrEsp) method is found to accurately describe the screening part of the excitonic coupling, obtained with FMO/PCM. Taking into account that the reaction field effects of the latter method can be described by a scalar constant leads to an improvement of Poisson-TrEsp that is expected to provide the basis for simple and realistic calculations of optical spectra and energy transfer in photosynthetic light-harvesting complexes. In addition, we present an expression for the estimation of Huang–Rhys factors of high-frequency pigment vibrations from experimental fluorescence line-narrowing spectra that takes into account the redistribution of oscillator strength by the interpigment excitonic coupling. Application to WSCP results in corrected Huang–Rhys factors that are less than one third of the original values obtained by the standard electronic two-state analysis that neglects the above redistribution. These factors are important for the estimation of the dipole strength of the 0–0 transition of the chromophores and for the development of calculation schemes for the spectral density of the exciton-vibrational coupling.

The importance of reaction field and screening effects on the excitonic couplings is demonstrated, and from quantum-chemical calculations a single scaling factor is derived that can be used to improve simple models based on the Poisson equation.