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Comparison of tryptophan fluorescence lifetimes in cyanobacterial photosystem I frozen in the light and in the dark

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Abstract

The dependence on temperature of tryptophan fluorescence lifetime in trimeric photosystem I (PSI) complexes from cyanobacteria Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 during the heating of pre-frozen to − 180 °C in the dark or in the light-activated preparations has been studied. Fluorescence lifetime in samples frozen in the light was longer than in samples frozen in the dark. For samples in 65% glycerol at λreg = 335 nm and at 20 °C, the lifetime of components were as follows: τ1 ≈ 1.2 ns, τ2 ≈ 4.9 ns, and τ3 ≈ 20 ns. The contribution of the first component was negligible. To analyze the contribution of components 2 and 3 derived from frozen-thawed samples, two temperature ranges from − 180 to − 90 °C and above − 90 °C are considered. In doing so, the contributions of these components appear antiphase course to each other. The dependence on temperature of these contributions is explained by the influence of the microconformational protein dynamics on the tryptophan fluorescence lifetime. In the present work, a comparative analysis of temperature-dependent conformational dynamics and electron transfer in cyanobacterial PSI (Schlodder et al., in Biochemistry 37:9466–9476, 1998) and Rhodobacter sphaeroides reaction center complexes (Knox et al., in J Photochem Photobiol B 180:140–148, 2018) was also carried out.

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Fig. 1

(Reproduced with permission from Knox et al. 2018)

Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

(Reproduced with permission from Schlodder et al. 1998)

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Abbreviations

RC:

Reaction center

PSI, PSII:

Photosystem I and II, respectively

P870, P700:

Photoactive pigments of bacterial RC and PSI

Q A, Q B :

Primary and secondary quinone acceptors, respectively

F X, F A, F B :

Iron–sulfur clusters

Chl:

Chlorophyll

BChl:

Bacteriochlorophyll

DAS:

Decay associated spectra

τ fl :

Fluorescence lifetime

τ av :

Average fluorescence lifetime

LHC:

Light harvesting complex

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Project No. 15-29-01167).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biophysics, Biological Faculty of the M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia, 119991

    Peter P. Knox, Boris N. Korvatovskiy, Vladimir V. Gorokhov, Sergey N. Goryachev & Vladimir Z. Paschenko

  2. A.N. Belozersky Institute of Physical-Chemical Biology, M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia, 119991

    Mahir D. Mamedov

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  1. Peter P. Knox
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  2. Boris N. Korvatovskiy
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  3. Vladimir V. Gorokhov
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  4. Sergey N. Goryachev
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  5. Mahir D. Mamedov
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  6. Vladimir Z. Paschenko
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Correspondence to Vladimir Z. Paschenko.

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Knox, P.P., Korvatovskiy, B.N., Gorokhov, V.V. et al. Comparison of tryptophan fluorescence lifetimes in cyanobacterial photosystem I frozen in the light and in the dark. Photosynth Res 139, 441–448 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-018-0595-8

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