chlorophyll-b and formic-acid

The microenvironments in photosynthetic proteins affect the absorption by chlorophyll (Chl) pigments. It is, however, a challenge to disentangle the impact on the transition energies of different perturbations, for example, the global electrostatics of the protein (nonbonded environmental effects), exciton coupling between Chl's, conformational variations, and binding of an axial ligand to the magnesium center. This is needed to distinguish between the two most commonly proposed mechanisms for energy transport in photosynthetic proteins, relying on either weakly or strongly coupled pigments. Here, on the basis of photodissociation action spectroscopy, we establish that the redshift of the Soret absorption band due to binding of a negatively charged carboxylate (as present in aspartic acid and glutamic acid residues) is 0.1-0.2 eV for Chl a and b. This effect is almost enough to reproduce the well-known green color of plants and can account for the strong spectral variation between Chl's. The experimental data serve to benchmark future high-level calculations of excited-state energies. Finally, we demonstrate that complexes between Chl a and histidine, tagged by a quaternary ammonium ion, can be made in the gas phase by electrospray ionization, but more work is needed to produce enough ions for gas-phase spectroscopy.

Topics: Acetylcholine; Aspartic Acid; Chlorophyll; Chlorophyll A; Energy Transfer; Formates; Glutamic Acid; Histidine; Kinetics; Ligands; Magnesium; Models, Molecular; Photosystem II Protein Complex; Pisum sativum; Protein Structure, Secondary; Spectrum Analysis; Static Electricity; Thermodynamics

Reduction of the 7-formyl groups in chlorophyll (Chl) b and its demetalated compound pheophytin (Phe) b was kinetically analyzed by using tert-butylamine-borane complex (t-BuNH(2)·BH(3)), and was compared with that of the 3-formyl groups in Chl d and Phe d. Reduction kinetics of the 7-formyl group in Chl b was similar to that in Phe b in dichloromethane containing 5mM t-BuNH(2)·BH(3). Little difference of the reduction kinetics of the 7-formyl groups between Chl b and Phe b was in sharp contrast to the reduction kinetics of the 3-formyl groups in Chl d and Phe d: the 3-formyl group in Phe d was reduced 5.3-fold faster than that in Chl d. The 7-formyl groups in Chl b and Phe b were reduced more slowly than the 3-formyl groups in Chl d and Phe d, respectively. The difference of the reactivity between the 3- and 7-formyl groups was in line with (13)C NMR measurements of chlorophyllous pigments, in which the chemical shifts of carbon atoms in the 7-formyl groups of Chl b and Phe b were high-field shifted compared with those in the 3-formyl groups of Chl d and Phe d, respectively. These indicate that the 7-formyl groups in chlorophyllous pigments were less reactive for reduction to the corresponding hydroxymethyl groups than the 3-formyl groups due to the difference in electronic states of the formyl groups in the A- and B-rings of the chlorin macrocycle.

Topics: Boranes; Butylamines; Chlorophyll; Cyanobacteria; Formates; Kinetics; Molecular Conformation; Oxidation-Reduction; Pheophytins; Spinacia oleracea