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Electron transport dynamics at the quinone acceptor site of bacterial photosynthetic reaction centers as probed using fast temperature changes

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Abstract

Methods of laser-induced temperature jumps and fast freezing were used for testing the rates of thermoinduced conformational transitions of reaction center (RC) complexes in chromatophores and isolated RC preparations of various photosynthesizing purple bacteria. An electron transfer reaction from primary to secondary quinone acceptors was used as a probe of electron transport efficiency. The thermoinduced transition of the acceptor complex to the conformational state facilitating electron transfer to the secondary quinone acceptor was studied. To investigate the dynamics of spontaneous decay of the RC state induced by the thermal pulse, the thermal pulse was applied either before or during photoinduced activation of electron transport reactions in the RC acceptor complex. The maximum effect was observed if the thermal pulse was applied against the background of steady-state photoactivation of the RC. It was shown that neither the characteristic time of the thermoinduced transition within the temperature range 233–253 K nor the characteristic time of spontaneous decay of this state at 253 K exceeded several tens of milliseconds. Independent support of the estimates was obtained from experiments with varied cooling rates of the samples tested.

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Fig. 1a–c.
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Abbreviations

bR:

bacteriorhodopsin

P:

photoactive bacteriochlorophyll

QA :

primary quinone acceptor

QB :

secondary quinone acceptor

RC:

reaction center

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project no. 00-04-48106, and ISTC, project 2296.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biophysics, Biology Faculty, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119899 , Moscow, Russia

    Sergei K. Chamorovsky & Peter P. Knox

  2. Institute of General Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

    Igor V. Chizhov & Boris V. Zubov

Authors
  1. Sergei K. Chamorovsky
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  2. Peter P. Knox
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  3. Igor V. Chizhov
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  4. Boris V. Zubov
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Correspondence to Sergei K. Chamorovsky.

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Chamorovsky, S.K., Knox, P.P., Chizhov, I.V. et al. Electron transport dynamics at the quinone acceptor site of bacterial photosynthetic reaction centers as probed using fast temperature changes. Eur Biophys J 32, 537–543 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00249-003-0289-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00249-003-0289-8

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