J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 269, Issue 17, 12462-12467, 04, 1994
Electron transfer events in chloride-depleted photosystem II
A Boussac and AW Rutherford
Departement de Biologie Cellulaire et Moleculaire, Centre d'Etudes Saclay, Gif sur Yvette, France.
Cl- and Ca2+ are obligatory cofactors in photosystem II (PS-II), the
oxygen-evolving enzyme of plants. The electron transfer events in Cl(-)-
depleted PS-II were investigated by using continuous wave (cw) and pulsed
EPR, and the results were compared with those obtained in untreated and
Ca(2+)-depleted PS-II. In Cl(-)-depleted PS-II, the S1 to S2 transition is
not accompanied by the appearance of the S2 manganese signal in both cw and
field-swept echo experiments. In the S3 state, the cw experiment reveals
the presence of a radical signal, and the field-swept echo experiment
reveals the presence of a manganese signal similar to that observed in the
S2 state in Cl(-)-reconstituted PS-II. A relaxation enhancement study of
the oxidized tyrosine D indicates that a relaxation enhancement occurs only
in the S2 to S3 transition and not in the S1 to S2 transition. The results
are interpreted by the following preferred model. In Cl(-)-depleted PS-II,
the S1 to S2 transition corresponds to the oxidation of a component other
than the manganese cluster, possibly an amino acid, and the S2 to S3
transition corresponds to the oxidation of the manganese complex. This
oxidation sequence is the opposite of that observed in Ca(2+)-depleted
PS-II and may be due to a modulation by chloride of the relative redox
potentials of the manganese cluster and a nearby oxidizable amino acid. An
alternative model involving manganese oxidation that is invisible in the S1
to S2 transition but that becomes visible on S3 formation cannot be ruled
out, although it is considered less likely.