ABSTRACT
The exciton interaction of four chlorophyll a (Chl a) molecules in a symmetrical tetrameric complex of the water-soluble chlorophyll-binding protein BoWSCP was analyzed in the pH range of 3-11. Exciton splitting ΔE = 232 ± 2 cm-1 of the Qy band of Chl a into two subcomponents with relative intensities of 78.1 ± 0.7 % and 21.9 ± 0.7 % was determined by a joint decomposition of the absorption and circular dichroism spectra into Gaussian functions. The exciton coupling parameters were calculated based on the BoWSCP atomic structure in three approximations: the point dipole model, the distributed atomic monopoles, and direct ab initio calculations in the TDDFT/PCM approximation. The Coulomb interactions of monomers were calculated within the continuum model using three values of optical permittivity. The models based on the properties of free Chl a in solution suffer from significant errors both in estimating the absolute value of the exciton interaction and in the relative intensity of exciton transitions. Calculations within the TDDFT/PCM approximation reproduce the experimentally determined parameters of the exciton splitting and the relative intensities of the exciton bands. The following factors of pigment-protein and pigment-pigment interactions were examined: deviation of the macrocycle geometry from the planar conformation of free Chl; the formation of hydrogen bonds between the macrocycle and water molecules; the overlap of wave functions of monomers at close distances. The most significant factor is the geometrical deformation of the porphyrin macrocycle, which leads to an increase in the dipole moment of Chl monomer from 5.5 to 6.9 D and to a rotation of the dipole moment by 15° towards the cyclopentane ring. The contributions of resonant charge-transfer states to the wave functions of the Chl dimer were determined and the transition dipole moments of the symmetric and antisymmetric charge-transfer states were estimated.
Subject(s)
Carrier Proteins , Chlorophyll , Chlorophyll/chemistry , Chlorophyll A , Water/chemistry , Light-Harvesting Protein Complexes/chemistry , Light-Harvesting Protein Complexes/metabolismABSTRACT
When bound to water-soluble proteins of the WSCP family, chlorophyll molecules form dimers structurally similar to the "special pair" of chlorophylls (bacteriochlorophylls) in photosynthetic reaction centers. Being exposed to red light (λ ≥ 650 nm) in oxygen-free solutions, chlorophyll a dimers harbored by BoWSCP holoproteins (from Brassica oleracea var. botrytis) have sensitized the reduction of cytochrome c. According to absorption and circular dichroism spectroscopy data, the photochemical process did not significantly impair the structure of chlorophyll a molecules as well as their dimers harbored by BoWSCP protein. Adding tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane as an electron donor for chlorophyll recovery stimulated the photoreduction of cytochrome c.
Subject(s)
Brassica , Cytochromes c , Chlorophyll A/metabolism , Cytochromes c/metabolism , Water/chemistry , Brassica/chemistry , Brassica/metabolism , Chlorophyll/metabolismABSTRACT
Water soluble chlorophyll-binding proteins (WSCPs) of higher plants differ from most proteins containing chlorophyll orbacteriochlorophyll in that they are soluble in watr and are neither embedded in the lipid membrane nor directly involved in the process of photosynthesis. Chlorophyll molecules in WSCPs ensembles are packed in dimers within the hydrophobic zone of the protein matrix, similar to the structure of a chlorophyll "special pair" in the reaction centers of phototrophs. This fact together with the detected photosensitizing activity of WSCPs makes it possible to consider these proteins as a promising object for modelling the evolutionary prototypes of the photosynthetic apparatus, as well as for developing the artificial solar energy converters. There are two classes of proteins in the WSCP family, class I and class II the representatives of these classes have a weak degree of homology in the primary structure, but a high degree of similarity in the tertiary and quaternary structure. One of the features of class I WSCPs is photoconversion, that is, to change the structure and spectral properties of the chromophore under the action of light. The functions of WSCPs in the plant are thought to be associated with stress protection.
