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Bhattacharjee S, Arra S, Daidone I, Pantazis DA. Excitation landscape of the CP43 photosynthetic antenna complex from multiscale simulations. Chem Sci 2024; 15:7269-7284. [PMID: 38756808 PMCID: PMC11095388 DOI: 10.1039/d3sc06714a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2023] [Accepted: 04/07/2024] [Indexed: 05/18/2024] Open
Abstract
Photosystem II (PSII), the principal enzyme of oxygenic photosynthesis, contains two integral light harvesting proteins (CP43 and CP47) that bind chlorophylls and carotenoids. The two intrinsic antennae play crucial roles in excitation energy transfer and photoprotection. CP43 interacts most closely with the reaction center of PSII, specifically with the branch of the reaction center (D1) that is responsible for primary charge separation and electron transfer. Deciphering the function of CP43 requires detailed atomic-level insights into the properties of the embedded pigments. To advance this goal, we employ a range of multiscale computational approaches to determine the site energies and excitonic profile of CP43 chlorophylls, using large all-atom models of a membrane-bound PSII monomer. In addition to time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) used in the context of a quantum-mechanics/molecular-mechanics setup (QM/MM), we present a thorough analysis using the perturbed matrix method (PMM), which enables us to utilize information from long-timescale molecular dynamics simulations of native PSII-complexed CP43. The excited state energetics and excitonic couplings have both similarities and differences compared with previous experimental fits and theoretical calculations. Both static TD-DFT and dynamic PMM results indicate a layered distribution of site energies and reveal specific groups of chlorophylls that have shared contributions to low-energy excitations. Importantly, the contribution to the lowest energy exciton does not arise from the same chlorophylls at each system configuration, but rather changes as a function of conformational dynamics. An unexpected finding is the identification of a low-energy charge-transfer excited state within CP43 that involves a lumenal (C2) and the central (C10) chlorophyll of the complex. The results provide a refined basis for structure-based interpretation of spectroscopic observations and for further deciphering excitation energy transfer in oxygenic photosynthesis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sinjini Bhattacharjee
- Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung Kaiser-Wilhelm-Platz 1 45470 Mülheim an der Ruhr Germany
| | - Srilatha Arra
- Department of Physical and Chemical Sciences, University of L'Aquila Via Vetoio (Coppito 1) 67010 L'Aquila Italy
| | - Isabella Daidone
- Department of Physical and Chemical Sciences, University of L'Aquila Via Vetoio (Coppito 1) 67010 L'Aquila Italy
| | - Dimitrios A Pantazis
- Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung Kaiser-Wilhelm-Platz 1 45470 Mülheim an der Ruhr Germany
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2
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Novoderezhkin VI. Excitation energy equilibration in a trimeric LHCII complex involves unusual pathways. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2023; 25:26360-26369. [PMID: 37750240 DOI: 10.1039/d3cp02836d] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/27/2023]
Abstract
We explore the energy equilibration within the LHCII trimer using various approaches, including the Redfield-Förster method (with different compartmentalization schemes) and the exact hierarchical equation of motion (HEOM). We demonstrate that the inter-monomeric migration in the trimeric LHCII complex is not limited to direct transfers between quasi-equilibrated chlorophylls (Chls) a, but also involves additional pathways with uphill transfers from Chls a to the stromal-side Chls b (connecting the Chls a clusters from different monomeric subunits). Although these uphill transfers are slow they still can increase the total rate of inter-monomeric transfers by a factor of 1.5. The same stromal-side Chls b also promote a depopulation of the Chl a604 long-lived state (blue-shifted and mixed with the lumenal-side Chls b). Due to the connection between the stromal- and lumenal-side Chls b clusters the intra- and inter-monomeric transfers from a604 to the main Chls a become faster by a factor of 1.6 and 1.75, respectively.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vladimir I Novoderezhkin
- A. N. Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Leninskie Gory, 119992, Moscow, Russia.
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3
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Sen S, Visscher L. Towards the description of charge transfer states in solubilised LHCII using subsystem DFT. PHOTOSYNTHESIS RESEARCH 2023; 156:39-57. [PMID: 35988131 PMCID: PMC10070235 DOI: 10.1007/s11120-022-00950-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/11/2022] [Accepted: 08/04/2022] [Indexed: 05/05/2023]
Abstract
Light harvesting complex II (LHCII) in plants and green algae have been shown to adapt their absorption properties, depending on the concentration of sunlight, switching between a light harvesting and a non-harvesting or quenched state. In a recent work, combining classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulations with quantum chemical calculations (Liguori et al. in Sci Rep 5:15661, 2015) on LHCII, it was shown that the Chl611-Chl612 cluster of the terminal emitter domain can play an important role in modifying the spectral properties of the complex. In that work the importance of charge transfer (CT) effects was highlighted, in re-shaping the absorption intensity of the chlorophyll dimer. Here in this work, we investigate the combined effect of the local excited (LE) and CT states in shaping the energy landscape of the chlorophyll dimer. Using subsystem Density Functional Theory over the classical [Formula: see text]s MD trajectory we look explicitly into the excitation energies of the LE and the CT states of the dimer and their corresponding couplings. Upon doing so, we observe a drop in the excitation energies of the CT states, accompanied by an increase in the couplings between the LE/LE and the LE/CT states facilitated by a shorter interchromophoric distance upon equilibration. Both these changes in conjunction, effectively produces a red-shift of the low-lying mixed exciton/CT states of the supramolecular chromophore pair.
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Affiliation(s)
- Souloke Sen
- Division of Theoretical Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1083, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Lucas Visscher
- Division of Theoretical Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1083, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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4
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Novoderezhkin VI, Croce R. The location of the low-energy states in Lhca1 favors excitation energy transfer to the core in the plant PSI-LHCI supercomplex. PHOTOSYNTHESIS RESEARCH 2023; 156:59-74. [PMID: 36374368 DOI: 10.1007/s11120-022-00979-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2022] [Accepted: 10/19/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Lhca1 is one of the four pigment-protein complexes composing the outer antenna of plant Photosystem I-light-havesting I supercomplex (PSI-LHCI). It forms a functional dimer with Lhca4 but, differently from this complex, it does not contain 'red-forms,' i.e., pigments absorbing above 700 nm. Interestingly, the recent PSI-LHCI structures suggest that Lhca1 is the main point of delivering the energy harvested by the antenna to the core. To identify the excitation energy pathways in Lhca1, we developed a structure-based exciton model based on the simultaneous fit of the low-temperature absorption, linear dichroism, and fluorescence spectra of wild-type Lhca1 and two mutants, lacking chlorophylls contributing to the long-wavelength region of the absorption. The model enables us to define the locations of the lowest energy pigments in Lhca1 and estimate pathways and timescales of energy transfer within the complex and to the PSI core. We found that Lhca1 has a particular energy landscape with an unusual (compared to Lhca4, LHCII, and CP29) configuration of the low-energy states. Remarkably, these states are located near the core, facilitating direct energy transfer to it. Moreover, the low-energy states of Lhca1 are also coupled to the red-most state (red forms) of the neighboring Lhca4 antenna, providing a pathway for effective excitation energy transfer from Lhca4 to the core.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vladimir I Novoderezhkin
- A. N. Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Moscow State University, Leninskie Gory, 119992, Moscow, Russia.
| | - Roberta Croce
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1081, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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5
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Sen S, Senjean B, Visscher L. Characterization of excited states in time-dependent density functional theory using localized molecular orbitals. J Chem Phys 2023; 158:054115. [PMID: 36754801 DOI: 10.1063/5.0137729] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Localized molecular orbitals are often used for the analysis of chemical bonds, but they can also serve to efficiently and comprehensibly compute linear response properties. While conventional canonical molecular orbitals provide an adequate basis for the treatment of excited states, a chemically meaningful identification of the different excited-state processes is difficult within such a delocalized orbital basis. In this work, starting from an initial set of supermolecular canonical molecular orbitals, we provide a simple one-step top-down embedding procedure for generating a set of orbitals, which are localized in terms of the supermolecule but delocalized over each subsystem composing the supermolecule. Using an orbital partitioning scheme based on such sets of localized orbitals, we further present a procedure for the construction of local excitations and charge-transfer states within the linear response framework of time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT). This procedure provides direct access to approximate diabatic excitation energies and, under the Tamm-Dancoff approximation, also their corresponding electronic couplings-quantities that are of primary importance in modeling energy transfer processes in complex biological systems. Our approach is compared with a recently developed diabatization procedure based on subsystem TDDFT using projection operators, which leads to a similar set of working equations. Although both of these methods differ in the general localization strategies adopted and the type of basis functions (Slaters vs Gaussians) employed, an overall decent agreement is obtained.
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Affiliation(s)
- Souloke Sen
- Division of Theoretical Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1083, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Bruno Senjean
- ICGM, Université de Montpellier, CNRS, ENSCM, Montpellier, France
| | - Lucas Visscher
- Division of Theoretical Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1083, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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Elias E, Liguori N, Croce R. The origin of pigment-binding differences in CP29 and LHCII: the role of protein structure and dynamics. PHOTOCHEMICAL & PHOTOBIOLOGICAL SCIENCES : OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE EUROPEAN PHOTOCHEMISTRY ASSOCIATION AND THE EUROPEAN SOCIETY FOR PHOTOBIOLOGY 2023:10.1007/s43630-023-00368-7. [PMID: 36740636 DOI: 10.1007/s43630-023-00368-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2022] [Accepted: 01/13/2023] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
The first step of photosynthesis in plants is performed by the light-harvesting complexes (LHC), a large family of pigment-binding proteins embedded in the photosynthetic membranes. These complexes are conserved across species, suggesting that each has a distinct role. However, they display a high degree of sequence homology and their static structures are almost identical. What are then the structural features that determine their different properties? In this work, we compared the two best-characterized LHCs of plants: LHCII and CP29. Using molecular dynamics simulations, we could rationalize the difference between them in terms of pigment-binding properties. The data also show that while the loops between the helices are very flexible, the structure of the transmembrane regions remains very similar in the crystal and the membranes. However, the small structural differences significantly affect the excitonic coupling between some pigment pairs. Finally, we analyzed in detail the structure of the long N-terminus of CP29, showing that it is structurally stable and it remains on top of the membrane even in the absence of other proteins. Although the structural changes upon phosphorylation are minor, they can explain the differences in the absorption properties of the pigments observed experimentally.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eduard Elias
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Nicoletta Liguori
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Roberta Croce
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
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7
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Electronic and vibrational contributions to the reorganization energy of photosynthetic pigments. Chem Phys Lett 2023. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cplett.2023.140384] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/17/2023]
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8
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Qi J, Yu X, Wang X, Zhang F, Ma C. Differentially expressed genes related to plant height and yield in two alfalfa cultivars based on RNA-seq. PeerJ 2022; 10:e14096. [PMID: 36248707 PMCID: PMC9558622 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.14096] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/08/2022] [Accepted: 08/30/2022] [Indexed: 01/21/2023] Open
Abstract
Background Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) is a kind of forage with high relative feeding value in farming and livestock breeding, and is of great significance to the development of animal husbandry. The growth of the aboveground part of alfalfa is an important factor that limits crop yield. Clarifying the molecular mechanisms that maintain vigorous growth in alfalfa may contribute to the development of molecular breeding for this crop. Methods Here, we evaluated the growth phenotypes of five cultivars of alfalfa (WL 712, WL 525HQ, Victoria, Knight 2, and Aohan). Then RNA-seq was performed on the stems of WL 712, chosen as a fast growing cultivar, and Aohan, chosen as a slow growing cultivar. GO enrichment analysis was conducted on all differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Result Among the differentially expressed genes that were up-regulated in the fast growing cultivar, GO analysis revealed enrichment in the following seven categories: formation of water-conducting tissue in vascular plants, biosynthesis and degradation of lignin, formation of the primary or secondary cell wall, cell enlargement and plant growth, cell division and shoot initiation, stem growth and induced germination, and cell elongation. KEGG analysis showed that differentially expressed genes were annotated as being involved in plant hormone signal transduction, photosynthesis, and phenylpropanoid biosynthesis. KEGG analysis also showed that up-regulated in the fast growing cultivar were members of the WRKY family of transcription factors related to plant growth and development, members of the NAC and MYB gene families related to the synthesis of cellulose and hemicellulose, and the development of secondary cell wall fibres, and finally, MYB family members that are involved in plant growth regulation. Our research results not only enrich the transcriptome database of alfalfa, but also provide valuable information for explaining the molecular mechanism of fast growth, and can provide reference for the production of alfalfa.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jiangjiao Qi
- College of Animal Science & Technology, Shihezi University, Shihezi, Xinjiang, China
| | - Xue Yu
- College of Animal Science & Technology, Shihezi University, Shihezi, Xinjiang, China
| | - Xuzhe Wang
- College of Animal Science & Technology, Shihezi University, Shihezi, Xinjiang, China
| | - Fanfan Zhang
- College of Animal Science & Technology, Shihezi University, Shihezi, Xinjiang, China
| | - Chunhui Ma
- College of Animal Science & Technology, Shihezi University, Shihezi, Xinjiang, China
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9
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Förster A, Visscher L. Quasiparticle Self-Consistent GW-Bethe-Salpeter Equation Calculations for Large Chromophoric Systems. J Chem Theory Comput 2022; 18:6779-6793. [PMID: 36201788 PMCID: PMC9648197 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.2c00531] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
![]()
The GW-Bethe–Salpeter equation
(BSE) method
is promising for calculating the low-lying excitonic states of molecular
systems. However, so far it has only been applied to rather small
molecules and in the commonly implemented diagonal approximations
to the electronic self-energy, it depends on a mean-field starting
point. We describe here an implementation of the self-consistent and
starting-point-independent quasiparticle self-consistent (qsGW)-BSE approach, which is suitable for calculations on
large molecules. We herein show that eigenvalue-only self-consistency
can lead to an unfaithful description of some excitonic states for
chlorophyll dimers while the qsGW-BSE vertical excitation
energies (VEEs) are in excellent agreement with spectroscopic experiments
for chlorophyll monomers and dimers measured in the gas phase. Furthermore,
VEEs from time-dependent density functional theory calculations tend
to disagree with experimental values and using different range-separated
hybrid (RSH) kernels does change the VEEs by up to 0.5 eV. We use
the new qsGW-BSE implementation to calculate the
lowest excitation energies of the six chromophores of the photosystem
II (PSII) reaction center (RC) with nearly 2000 correlated electrons.
Using more than 11,000 (6000) basis functions, the calculation could
be completed in less than 5 (2) days on a single modern compute node.
In agreement with previous TD-DFT calculations using RSH kernels on
models that also do not include environmental effects, our qsGW-BSE calculations only yield states with local characters
in the low-energy spectrum of the hexameric complex. Earlier works
with RSH kernels have demonstrated that the protein environment facilitates
the experimentally observed interchromophoric charge transfer. Therefore,
future research will need to combine correlation effects beyond TD-DFT
with an explicit treatment of environmental electrostatics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arno Förster
- Theoretical Chemistry, Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1083, NL-1081 HVAmsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Lucas Visscher
- Theoretical Chemistry, Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1083, NL-1081 HVAmsterdam, The Netherlands
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Tölle J, Neugebauer J. The Seamless Connection of Local and Collective Excited States in Subsystem Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory. J Phys Chem Lett 2022; 13:1003-1018. [PMID: 35061387 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.1c04023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/21/2023]
Abstract
The theoretical understanding of photoinduced processes in multichromophoric systems requires, as an essential ingredient, the possibility of accurately describing their electronically excited states. However, the size of these systems often prohibits the usage of conventional electronic-structure methods, so that often multiscale approaches based on phenomenologically motivated models are employed. In contrast, subsystem time-dependent density functional theory (sTDDFT) allows for a subsystem-based ab initio description of multichromophoric systems and therefore allows for, in principle, an exact description of photoinduced processes. This Perspective aims to outline the theoretical foundations and commonly used practical realizations as well as to illustrate benefits of recent developments and open issues in the field of sTDDFT. Prospective, potential future applications and possible methodological developments are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Johannes Tölle
- Theoretische Organische Chemie, Organisch-Chemisches Institut and Center for Multiscale Theory and Computation, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Corrensstraße 40, 48149 Münster, Germany
| | - Johannes Neugebauer
- Theoretische Organische Chemie, Organisch-Chemisches Institut and Center for Multiscale Theory and Computation, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Corrensstraße 40, 48149 Münster, Germany
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