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Modulation of fluorescence in Heliobacterium modesticaldum cells

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Abstract

In what appears to be a common theme for all phototrophs, heliobacteria exhibit complex modulations of fluorescence yield when illuminated with actinic light and probed on a time scale of μs to minutes. The fluorescence yield from cells of Heliobacterium modesticaldum remained nearly constant for the first 10–100 ms of illumination and then rose to a maximum level with one or two inflections over the course of many seconds. Fluorescence then declined to a steady-state value within about one minute. In this analysis, the origins of the fluorescence induction in whole cells of heliobacteria are investigated by treating cells with a combination of electron accepters, donors, and inhibitors of the photosynthetic electron transport, as well as varying the temperature. We conclude that fluorescence modulation in H. modesticaldum results from acceptor-side limitation in the reaction center (RC), possibly due to charge recombination between P800 + and A0 −.

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Abbreviations

RC:

Reaction center

[4Fe–4S]:

4-Iron–4-sulfur

PMS:

Phenazine methosulfate

BChl:

Bacteriochlorophyll

PS1:

Photosystem 1

A0 :

Primary acceptor in the RC

F0 :

Basal fluorescence level

Fv :

Variable fluorescence

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Dr. Michael Madigan for kindly providing cells of Heliobacterium modesticaldum. This study was supported by grant #NNX08AP62G from the Exobiology program of NASA to R. E. Blankenship, and a CAREER award from the NSF (MCB-0347935) and Fulbright Research grant to KR. KR also acknowledges support from the CNRS while on sabbatical at the IBPC.

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  1. Kevin E. Redding

    Present address: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85281, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Biology and Chemistry, Washington University in St. Louis, Campus Box 1137, St. Louis, MO, 63130, USA

    Aaron M. Collins & Robert E. Blankenship

  2. Institute de Biologie Physico-Chimique, 13 rue Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, 75005, France

    Kevin E. Redding

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  1. Aaron M. Collins
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Correspondence to Robert E. Blankenship.

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Collins, A.M., Redding, K.E. & Blankenship, R.E. Modulation of fluorescence in Heliobacterium modesticaldum cells. Photosynth Res 104, 283–292 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-010-9554-8

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