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Irreversible disassembly of chiral macrodomains in thylakoids due to photoinhibition

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Abstract

We investigated the effect of photoinhibitory illumination on the chiral macroorganization of the chromophores in spinach thylakoid membranes. By measuring circular dichroism (CD), we found that prolonged (15 min) illumination of membranes with intense white light led to irreversible diminishment of the main CD bands originating from the chiral macroorganization of the chromophores. The irreversible decrease of the main CD bands showed a nearly linear correlation with the extent of photoinhibition which was determined by chlorophyll fluorescence induction. CD measurements also revealed that the excitonic CD bands, which are given rise by short-range interactions between the chromophores inside the complexes or particles, were largely insensitive to the photoinhibitory illumination of the membranes. These data show that, whereas photoinhibitory treatment has no perceptible effect on the molecular architecture of the bulk of the pigment–protein complexes, it leads to a disorganization of their macroarray, and an irreversible disassembly of the chirally organized macrodomains.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Volcani Center, ARO, Institute of Horticulture, P.O.Box 6, Bet Dagan, 50250, Israel

    Eugene E. Gussakovsky & Yosepha Shahak

  2. Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Plant Biology, H-6701, Szeged, P.O.Box 521, Hungary

    Virginijus Barzda & Gyözö Garab

Authors
  1. Eugene E. Gussakovsky
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  2. Virginijus Barzda
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  3. Yosepha Shahak
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  4. Gyözö Garab
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Gussakovsky, E.E., Barzda, V., Shahak, Y. et al. Irreversible disassembly of chiral macrodomains in thylakoids due to photoinhibition. Photosynthesis Research 51, 119–126 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005775720376

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