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Assembly and composition of the chlorophyll a-b light-harvesting complex of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.): Immunochemical analysis of chlorophyll b-less and chlorophyll b-deficient mutants

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Abstract

The chlorina-f2 mutant of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) contains no chlorophyll b in its light-harvesting antenna, whereas the chlorina-103 mutant contains approximately 10% of the chlorophyll b found in wild-type. The absolute chlorophyll antenna size for Photosystem-II in wild-type, chlorina-103 and chlorina-f2 mutant was 250, 58 and 50 chlorophyll molecules, respectively. The absolute chlorophyll antenna size for Photosystem-I in wild-type, chlorina-103 and chlorina-f2 mutant was 210, 137 and 150 chlorophyll molecules, respoectively. In spite of the smaller PS I antenna size in the chlorina mutants, immunochemical analysis showed the presence of polypeptide components of the LHC-I auxiliary antenna with molecular masses of 25, 19.5 and 19 kDa. The chlorophyll a-b-binding LHC-II auxiliary antenna of PS II contained five polypeptide subunits in wild-type barley, termed a, b, c, d and e, with molecular masses of 30, 28, 27, 24 and 21 kDa, respectively. The polypeptide composition of the LHC-II auxiliary antenna of PS II was found to be identical in the two mutants, with only the 24 kDa subunit d present at an equal copy number per PS II in each of the mutants and in the wild-type barley. This d subunit assembles stably in the thylakoid membrane even in the absence of chlorophyll b and exhibits flexibility in its complement of bound chlorophylls. We suggest that polypeptide subunit d binds most of the chlorophyll associated with the residual PS II antenna in the chlorina mutants and that is proximal to the PS II-core complex.

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Abbreviations

CP:

chlorophyll-protein

LHC:

the chlorophyll a-b binding light-harvesting complex

LHC-II subunit a :

the Lhcb4/5 gene product

subunit b :

the Lhcb1 gene product

subunit c :

Lhcb2 the gene product

subunit d :

the Lhcb3 gene product

subunit e :

the Lhcb6 gene product

PMSF:

phenylmethane sulphonyl fluoride

RC:

reaction center

QA :

the primary quinone electron acceptor of Photosystem-II

P700:

the reaction center of PS I

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Biology, University of California, 411 Koshland Hall, 94720, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Michael A. Harrison, Jeff A. Nemson & Anastasios Melis

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  1. Michael A. Harrison
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  2. Jeff A. Nemson
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  3. Anastasios Melis
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Harrison, M.A., Nemson, J.A. & Melis, A. Assembly and composition of the chlorophyll a-b light-harvesting complex of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.): Immunochemical analysis of chlorophyll b-less and chlorophyll b-deficient mutants. Photosynth Res 38, 141–151 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00146413

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00146413

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