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Low-temperature (77 K) phosphorescence of triplet chlorophyll in isolated reaction centers of photosystem II

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Abstract

Phosphorescence characterized by the main emission band at 952 ± 1 nm (1.30 eV), the lifetime of 1.5 ± 0.1 ms and the quantum yield nearly equal to that for monomeric chlorophyll a in aqueous detergent dispersions, has been detected in isolated reaction centers (RCs) of spinach photosystem II at 77 K. The excitation spectrum shows maxima corresponding to absorption bands of chlorophyll a, pheophytin a, and β-carotene. The phosphorescence intensity strongly depends upon the redox state of RCs. The data suggest that the phosphorescence signal originates from the chlorophyll triplet state populated via charge recombination in the radical pair \({\rm P}_{680}^{+}{\rm Pheo}_{{\rm D}1}^{-}.\)

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Abbreviations

BTS buffer:

20 mM Bis–Tris (pH 6.5)/20 mM MgCl2/5 mM CaCl2/0.03 % (w/v) n-dodecyl-β-D-maltoside/100 mM MgSO4/200 mM sucrose

Chl:

Chlorophyll a

ChlD1 :

Monomeric Chl at the active cofactor branch

cyt b559:

Cytochrome b559

β-car:

β-Carotene

D1 and D2:

The D1 and D2 polypeptides of the reaction center

Pheo:

Pheophytin a

PheoD1 :

Pheo at the active cofactor branch

PSII:

Photosystem II

P680 :

A dimer of Chl molecules

RC:

Reaction center

SiMo:

Silicomolybdate

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Russian Academy of Sciences (the Programs “Molecular and Cell Biology” and “The fundamentals of technologies of nanostructures and nanomaterials”), by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Grants 13-04-40297-H, 15-04-05500), and by the Program “Leading Scientific Schools” (SS-4771.2014.4).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. A.N. Bach Institute of Biochemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninskii pr., 33, Moscow, 119071, Russian Federation

    Konstantin V. Neverov & Alexander A. Krasnovsky Jr

  2. Biology Department, M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Vorobyovy Gory, Moscow, 119992, Russian Federation

    Konstantin V. Neverov & Alexander A. Krasnovsky Jr

  3. Institute of Basic Biological Problems, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pushchino, Moscow, 142290, Russian Federation

    Alexey A. Zabelin, Vladimir A. Shuvalov & Anatoly Ya. Shkuropatov

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  1. Konstantin V. Neverov
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  2. Alexander A. Krasnovsky Jr
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  3. Alexey A. Zabelin
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  4. Vladimir A. Shuvalov
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  5. Anatoly Ya. Shkuropatov
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Correspondence to Anatoly Ya. Shkuropatov.

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Neverov, K.V., Krasnovsky, A.A., Zabelin, A.A. et al. Low-temperature (77 K) phosphorescence of triplet chlorophyll in isolated reaction centers of photosystem II. Photosynth Res 125, 43–49 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-015-0105-1

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