title: Strains of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 with altered PsaC. II. EPR and optical spectroscopic properties of FA and FB in aspartate, serine, and alanine replacements of cysteines 14 and 51.
abstract: A psaC deletion mutant of the unicellular cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 was utilized to incorporate site-specific amino acid substitutions in the cysteine residues that ligate the FA and FB iron-sulfur clusters in Photosystem I (PS I). Cysteines 14 and 51 of PsaC were changed to aspartic acid (C14DPsaC, C51DPsaC, C14D/C51DPsaC), serine (C14SPsaC, C51SPsaC), and alanine (C14APsaC, C51APsaC), and the properties of FA and FB were characterized by electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy and time-resolved optical spectroscopy. The C14DPsaC-PS I and C14SPsaC-PS I complexes showed high levels of photoreduction of FA with g values of 2.045, 1. 944, and 1.852 after illumination at 15 K, but there was no evidence of reduced FB in the g = 2 region. The C51DPsaC-PS I and C51SPsaC-PS I complexes showed low levels of photoreduction of FB with g values of 2.067, 1.931, and 1.881 after illumination at 15 K, but there was no evidence of reduced FA in the g = 2 region. The presence of FB was inferred in C14DPsaC-PS I and C14SPsaC-PS I, and the presence of FA was inferred in C51DPsaC-PS I and C51SPsaC-PS I by magnetic interaction in the photoaccumulated spectra and by the equal spin concentration of the irreversible P700(+) cation generated by illumination at 77 K. Flash-induced optical absorbance changes at 298 K in the presence of a fast electron donor indicate that two electron acceptors function after FX in the four mutant PS I complexes at room temperature. These data suggest that a mixed-ligand [4Fe-4S] cluster is present in the mutant sites of C14X-PS I and C51X-PS I (where X = D or S), but that the proposed spin state of S = 3/2 renders the resonances undetectable in the g = 2 region. The C14APsaC-PS I, C51APsaC-PS I and C14D/C51DPsaC-PS I complexes show only the photoreduction of FX, consistent with the absence of PsaC. These results show that only those PsaC proteins that contain two [4Fe-4S] clusters are capable of assembling onto PS I cores in vivo.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Center for Biological Chemistry, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588-0664, USA.
authors.forename: Y S
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.forename: I R
authors.initials: IR
authors.lastname: Vassiliev
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: McIntosh
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Golbeck
mesh_terms: D000596:Amino Acids / Q000737:chemistry*; D000458:Cyanobacteria / Q000235:genetics*; D004578:Electron Spin Resonance Spectroscopy; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D016297:Mutagenesis, Site-Directed; D055095:Optics and Photonics; D045331:Photosystem I Protein Complex; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D045331:Photosystem I Protein Complex; D011506:Proteins; C089909:photosystem I, psaB subunit