5ws6

Publication Abstract from PubMed

Photosystem II (PSII) is a huge membrane-protein complex consisting of 20 different subunits with a total molecular mass of 350 kDa for a monomer. It catalyses light-driven water oxidation at its catalytic centre, the oxygen-evolving complex (OEC). The structure of PSII has been analysed at 1.9 A resolution by synchrotron radiation X-rays, which revealed that the OEC is a Mn4CaO5 cluster organized in an asymmetric, 'distorted-chair' form. This structure was further analysed with femtosecond X-ray free electron lasers (XFEL), providing the 'radiation damage-free' structure. The mechanism of O=O bond formation, however, remains obscure owing to the lack of intermediate-state structures. Here we describe the structural changes in PSII induced by two-flash illumination at room temperature at a resolution of 2.35 A using time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography with an XFEL provided by the SPring-8 angstrom compact free-electron laser. An isomorphous difference Fourier map between the two-flash and dark-adapted states revealed two areas of apparent changes: around the QB/non-haem iron and the Mn4CaO5 cluster. The changes around the QB/non-haem iron region reflected the electron and proton transfers induced by the two-flash illumination. In the region around the OEC, a water molecule located 3.5 A from the Mn4CaO5 cluster disappeared from the map upon two-flash illumination. This reduced the distance between another water molecule and the oxygen atom O4, suggesting that proton transfer also occurred. Importantly, the two-flash-minus-dark isomorphous difference Fourier map showed an apparent positive peak around O5, a unique mu4-oxo-bridge located in the quasi-centre of Mn1 and Mn4 (refs 4,5). This suggests the insertion of a new oxygen atom (O6) close to O5, providing an O=O distance of 1.5 A between these two oxygen atoms. This provides a mechanism for the O=O bond formation consistent with that proposed previously.

Light-induced structural changes and the site of O=O bond formation in PSII caught by XFEL.,Suga M, Akita F, Sugahara M, Kubo M, Nakajima Y, Nakane T, Yamashita K, Umena Y, Nakabayashi M, Yamane T, Nakano T, Suzuki M, Masuda T, Inoue S, Kimura T, Nomura T, Yonekura S, Yu LJ, Sakamoto T, Motomura T, Chen JH, Kato Y, Noguchi T, Tono K, Joti Y, Kameshima T, Hatsui T, Nango E, Tanaka R, Naitow H, Matsuura Y, Yamashita A, Yamamoto M, Nureki O, Yabashi M, Ishikawa T, Iwata S, Shen JR Nature. 2017 Mar 2;543(7643):131-135. doi: 10.1038/nature21400. Epub 2017 Feb 20. PMID:28219079^[1]

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.