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Photosystem II solubilizes as a monomer by mild detergent treatment of unstacked thylakoid membranes*

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Abstract

We studied the aggregation state of Photosystem II in stacked and unstacked thylakoid membranes from spinach after a quick and mild solubilization with the non-ionic detergent n-dodecyl-α,D-maltoside, followed by analysis by diode-array-assisted gel filtration chromatography and electron microscopy. The results suggest that Photosystem II (PS II) isolates either as a paired, appressed membrane fragment or as a dimeric PS II-LHC II supercomplex upon mild solubilization of stacked thylakoid membranes or PS II grana membranes, but predominantly as a core monomer upon mild solubilization of unstacked thylakoid membranes. Analysis of paired grana membrane fragments reveals that the number of PS II dimers is strongly reduced in single membranes at the margins of the grana membrane fragments. We suggest that unstacking of thylakoid membranes results in a spontaneous disintegration of the PS II-LHC II supercomplexes into separated PS II core monomers and peripheral light-harvesting complexes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Sciences, Division of Physics and Astronomy, Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1081, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Jan P. Dekker, Marta Germano & Henny van Roon

  2. Department of Biophysical Chemistry, Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Egbert J. Boekema

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  1. Jan P. Dekker
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  2. Marta Germano
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  3. Henny van Roon
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  4. Egbert J. Boekema
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Correspondence to Jan P. Dekker.

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Dekker, J.P., Germano, M., van Roon, H. et al. Photosystem II solubilizes as a monomer by mild detergent treatment of unstacked thylakoid membranes* . Photosynthesis Research 72, 203–210 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016188818591

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016188818591

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