Photoinduced transient absorbance spectra of P840/P840(+) and the FMO protein in reaction centers of Chlorobium vibrioforme

Analysis of Photosynthetic Systems and Their Applications with Mathematical and Computational Models

In biological and life science applications, photosynthesis is an important process that involves the absorption and transformation of sunlight into chemical energy. During the photosynthesis process, the light photons are captured by the green chlorophyll pigments in their photosynthetic antennae and further funneled to the reaction center. One of the most important light harvesting complexes that are highly important in the study of photosynthesis is the membrane-attached Fenna–Matthews–Olson (FMO) complex found in the green sulfur bacteria. In this review, we discuss the mathematical formulations and computational modeling of some of the light harvesting complexes including FMO. The most recent research developments in the photosynthetic light harvesting complexes are thoroughly discussed. The theoretical background related to the spectral density, quantum coherence and density functional theory has been elaborated. Furthermore, details about the transfer and excitation of energy in different sites of the FMO complex along with other vital photosynthetic light harvesting complexes have also been provided. Finally, we conclude this review by providing the current and potential applications in environmental science, energy, health and medicine, where such mathematical and computational studies of the photosynthesis and the light harvesting complexes can be readily integrated.

Dynamics of Energy and Electron Transfer in the FMO-Reaction Center Core Complex from the Phototrophic Green Sulfur Bacterium Chlorobaculum tepidum

The reaction center core (RCC) complex and the RCC with associated Fenna-Matthews-Olson protein (FMO-RCC) complex from the green sulfur bacterium Chlorobaculum tepidum were studied comparatively by steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence (TRF) and femtosecond time-resolved transient absorption (TA) spectroscopies. The energy transfer efficiency from the FMO to the RCC complex was calculated to be ∼40% based on the steady-state fluorescence. TRF showed that most of the FMO complexes (66%), regardless of the fact that they were physically attached to the RCC, were not able to transfer excitation energy to the reaction center. The TA spectra of the RCC complex showed a 30-38 ps lifetime component regardless of the excitation wavelengths, which is attributed to charge separation. Excitonic equilibration was shown in TA spectra of the RCC complex when excited into the BChl a Qx band at 590 nm and the Chl a Qy band at 670 nm, while excitation at 840 nm directly populated the low-energy excited state and equilibration within the excitonic BChl a manifold was not observed. The TA spectra for the FMO-RCC complex excited into the BChl a Qx band could be interpreted by a combination of the excited FMO protein and RCC complex. The FMO-RCC complex showed an additional fast kinetic component compared with the FMO protein and the RCC complex, which may be due to FMO-to-RCC energy transfer.

Contributions of the Protein Environment to the Midpoint Potentials of the A1 Phylloquinones and the FX Iron−Sulfur Cluster in Photosystem I

Electrostatic calculations have predicted that the partial negative charge associated with D575PsaB plays a significant role in modulating the midpoint potentials of the A1A and A1B phylloquinones in photosystem I. To test this prediction, the side chain of residue 575PsaB was changed from negatively charged (D) to neutral (A) and to positively charged (K). D566PsaB, which is located at a considerable distance from either A1A or A1B, and should affect primarily the midpoint potential of FX, was similarly changed. In the 575PsaB variants, the rate of electron transfer from A1A to FX is observed to decrease slightly according to the sequence D/A/K. In the 566PsaB variants, the opposite effect of a slight increase in the rate is observed according to the same sequence D/A/K. These results are consistent with the expectation that changing these residues will shift the midpoint potentials of nearby cofactors to more positive values and that the magnitude of this shift will depend on the distance between the cofactors and the residues being changed. Thus, the midpoint potentials of A1A and A1B should experience a larger shift than will FX in the 575PsaB variants, while FX should experience a larger shift than will either A1A or A1B in the 566PsaB variants. As a result, the driving energy for electron transfer from A1A and A1B to FX will be decreased in the former and increased in the latter. This rationalization of the changes in kinetics is compared with the results of electrostatic calculations. While the altered amino acids shift the midpoint potentials of A1A, A1B, and FX by different amounts, the difference in the shifts between A1A and FX or between A1B and FX is small so that the overall effect on the electron transfer rate between A1A and FX or between A1B and FX is predicted to be small. These conclusions are borne out by experiment.

Modeling of the P700+ charge recombination kinetics with phylloquinone and plastoquinone-9 in the A1 site of photosystem I

Light activation of photosystem I (PS I) induces electron transfer from the excited primary electron donor P700 (a special pair of chlorophyll a/a' molecules) to three iron-sulfur clusters, F(X), F(A), and F(B) via acceptors A(0) (a monomeric chlorophyll a) and A(1) (phylloquinone). PS I complexes isolated from menA and menB mutants contain plastoquinone-9 rather than phylloquinone in the A(1) site and show altered rates of forward electron transfer from A to [F(A)/F(B)] and altered rates of back electron transfer from [F(A)/F(B)](-) to P700+ (Semenov, A. Y., et al., J. Biol. Chem. 275:23429-23438, 2000). To identify the modified electron transfer steps, we studied the kinetics of flash-induced P700+ reduction in PS I that contains either an intact set or a subset of iron-sulfur clusters F(X), F(A), and F(B) and with the A(1) binding site occupied by phylloquinone or plastoquinone-9. A modeling of the forward and backward electron transfer kinetics in P700-F(A)/F(B) complexes, P700-F(X) cores, and P700-A(1) cores shows that the replacement of phylloquinone by plastoquinone-9 induces a decrease in the free energy gap between A(1) and F(A)/F(B) from approximately -205 mV in wild-type PS I to approximately -70 mV in menA PS I. The +135 mV increase in the midpoint potential of A(1) explains the acceleration in the rate of P700+ dark reduction in menA PS I, and the resulting uphill electron transfer from A(1) to F(X) in menA PS I explains the absence of a contribution from F to the reduction of P700+. This fully quantitative description of PS I relates electron transfer rates, equilibrium constants, and redox potentials, and can be used to predict changes in these parameters upon substitution of electron transfer cofactors.

Iron-sulfur clusters in type I reaction centers

Type I reaction centers (RCs) are multisubunit chlorophyll-protein complexes that function in photosynthetic organisms to convert photons to Gibbs free energy. The unique feature of Type I RCs is the presence of iron-sulfur clusters as electron transfer cofactors. Photosystem I (PS I) of oxygenic phototrophs is the best-studied Type I RC. It is comprised of an interpolypeptide [4Fe-4S] cluster, F(X), that bridges the PsaA and PsaB subunits, and two terminal [4Fe-4S] clusters, F(A) and F(B), that are bound to the PsaC subunit. In this review, we provide an update on the structure and function of the bound iron-sulfur clusters in Type I RCs. The first new development in this area is the identification of F(A) as the cluster proximal to F(X) and the resolution of the electron transfer sequence as F(X)-->F(A)-->F(B)-->soluble ferredoxin. The second new development is the determination of the three-dimensional NMR solution structure of unbound PsaC and localization of the equal- and mixed-valence pairs in F(A)(-) and F(B)(-). We provide a survey of the EPR properties and spectra of the iron-sulfur clusters in Type I RCs of cyanobacteria, green sulfur bacteria, and heliobacteria, and we summarize new information about the kinetics of back-reactions involving the iron-sulfur clusters.