Exciton delocalization length in chlorosomes investigated by lineshape dynamics of two-dimensional electronic spectra.

A chlorosome, a photosynthetic light-harvesting complex found in green sulfur bacteria, is an aggregate of self-assembled pigments and is optimized for efficient light harvesting and energy transfer under dim-light conditions. In this highly-disordered aggregate, the absorption and transfer of photoexcitation energy are governed by the degree of disorder. To describe the disorder, the number of molecules forming excitons, which is termed exciton delocalization length (EDL), is a relevant parameter because the EDL sensitively changes with the disorder of the constituent molecules. In this work, we determined the EDL in chlorosomes using two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy (2D-ES). Since spectral features correlated with EDL are spread out in the two-dimensional (2D) electronic spectra, we were able to determine the EDL accurately without the effects of homogeneous and inhomogeneous line broadening. In particular, by taking advantage of the multi-dimensionality and the time evolution of 2D spectra, we not only determined the excitation frequency dependence of EDL but also monitored the temporal change of EDL. We found that the EDL is ∼7 at 77 K and ∼6 at 298 K and increases with the excitation frequency, with the maximum located well above the maximum of the absorption spectrum of chlorosomes. The spectral profile of EDL changes rapidly within 100 fs and becomes flat over time due to dephasing of initial exciton coherence. From the coherent oscillations superimposed on the decay of EDL, it was learned that high-frequency phonons are more activated at 298 K than at 77 K.

Molecular Structures and Functions of Chlorophylls-a Esterified with Geranylgeranyl, Dihydrogeranylgeranyl, and Tetrahydrogeranylgeranyl Groups at the 17-Propionate Residue in a Diatom, Chaetoceros calcitrans.

The 17-propionate ester group of chlorophyll(Chl)-a in some oxygenic phototrophs was investigated using HPLC. Chls-a esterified with partially dehydrogenated forms of a phytyl group were found in fully grown cells of a diatom, Chaetoceros calcitrans: geranylgeranyl (GG), dihydrogeranylgeranyl (DHGG), and tetrahydrogeranylgeranyl (THGG). Chls-a bearing such esterifying groups were reported to be found only in greening processes of higher plants, and thus these Chls-a have been thought to be biosynthetic precursors for phytylated Chl-a. Their molecular structures were unambiguously determined using 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. In particular, the positions of C═C double bonds in DHGG were identified at C2═C3, C6═C7, and C14═C15, and those in THGG were determined to be at C2═C3 and C14═C15. Notably, the present DHGG was different from the previously determined DHGG of bacteriochlorophyll-a in purple bacteria (C2═C3, C10═C11, and C14═C15). Moreover, thylakoid membranes as well as fucoxanthin-chlorophyll-a/c proteins called FCPs were isolated from the diatom, and their Chl-a compositions were analyzed. Chls-a esterified with GG, DHGG, and THGG were detected by HPLC, indicating that such Chls-a were not merely biosynthetic precursors, but photosynthetically active pigments.

Role of thermal excitation in ultrafast energy transfer in chlorosomes revealed by two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy.

Chlorosomes are the largest light harvesting complexes in nature and consist of many bacteriochlorophyll pigments forming self-assembled J-aggregates. In this work, we use two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy (2D-ES) to investigate ultrafast dynamics of excitation energy transfer (EET) in chlorosomes and their temperature dependence. From time evolution of the measured 2D electronic spectra of chlorosomes, we directly map out the distribution of the EET rate among the manifold of exciton states in a 2D energy space. In particular, it is found that the EET rate varies gradually depending on the energies of energy-donor and energy-acceptor states. In addition, from comparative 2D-ES measurements at 77 K and room temperature, we show that the EET rate exhibits subtle dependence on both the exciton energy and temperature, demonstrating the effect of thermal excitation on the EET rate. This observation suggests that active thermal excitation at room temperature prevents the excitation trapping at low-energy states and thus promotes efficient exciton diffusion in chlorosomes at ambient temperature.

Isolation and pigment composition of the reaction centers from purple photosynthetic bacterium Rhodopseudomonas palustris species.

The reaction centers (RCs) from several species of a purple photosynthetic bacterium, Rhodopseudomonas palustris, were first isolated by ammonium-sulfate fractionation of the isolated core complexes, and were successfully purified by anion-exchange and gel-filtration chromatography as well as sucrose-density gradient centrifugation. The RCs were characterized by spectroscopic and biochemical analyses, indicating that they were sufficiently pure and had conserved their redox activity. The pigment composition of the purified RCs was carefully analyzed by LCMS. Significant accumulation of both bacteriochlorophyll(BChl)-a and bacteriopheophytin(BPhe)-a esterified with various isoprenoid alcohols in the 17-propionate groups was shown in RCs for the first time. Moreover, a drastic decrease in BPhe-a with the most dehydrogenated and rigid geranylgeranyl(GG) ester was observed, indicating that BPhe-a in RC preferably took partially hydrogenated and flexible ester groups, i.e. dihydro-GG and tetrahydro-GG in addition to phytyl. Based on the reported X-ray crystal structures of purple bacterial RCs, the meaning of flexibility of the ester groups in BChl-a and BPhe-a as the cofactors of RCs is proposed.

Enhanced Stability of Stable Isotopic Gases.

Pure gases and mixtures containing stable isotopes are used in a wide variety of applications including health care, food authentication, geochemistry, and environmental monitoring. It is therefore important to understand the role of moisture, which is one of the most critical impurities in compressed gas mixtures and pure gases, in their stability. Gaseous carbon dioxide (CO2) was used as a proxy for the evaluation of the effects of its isotopic composition, when in contact with moisture throughout the depletion of a cylinder's contents, as well as pressure regulation and long-term stability. To accentuate the detrimental effects of moisture on CO2 isotopic stability, enriched 18O-water was added to natural-abundance, gaseous carbon dioxide. The δ18O-CO2 changed from -23.16‰ vs Vienna Pee Dee Belemnite (VPDB) to +109‰ vs VPDB. It was further demonstrated that with appropriate cylinder preparation to reduce residual moisture, source material purity with low moisture content, and pressure regulation (from 57.0 down to 0.5 bar), both δ13C and δ18O remained consistent within ±0.04 and ±0.06‰, respectively, throughout the entire cylinder contents. Pressure reduction using a dual-stage regulator yielded statistically consistent results at the 99% confidence level from delivered pressures of 0.1-0.8 bar. Furthermore, the isotopic values remained consistent during a 1 year shelf-life study, illustrating the ability to utilize and regulate pressurized gases as working reference standard gases.

The 17-propionate esterifying variants of bacteriochlorophyll-a and bacteriopheophytin-a in purple photosynthetic bacteria.

Most purple photosynthetic bacteria contain bacteriochlorophyll(BChl)-a (a magnesium complex) and bacteriopheophytin(BPhe)-a (its free base) as their photoactive pigments. These pigments are composed of two parts: a cyclic tetrapyrrole as the chromophore and a long hydrocarbon-chain as the propionate-type esterifying group at the 17-position. The hydrocarbon-chain is usually an isoprenoid-type C20 phytyl (Phy) group in both the pigments. In the ester group of BChl-a, several variants such as geranylgeranyl (GG), dihydrogeranylgeranyl (DHGG) and tetrahydrogeranylgeranyl (THGG) groups were found in the final stage of BChl-a biosynthesis. On the other hand, the esterifying variants in BPhe-a have not been studied as much due to the lower levels of this pigment relative to BChl-a. The esterifying group does not affect the electronic absorption properties of such pigments in the monomeric state, but drastically alters the hydrophobicity. In this study, BChl-a and BPhe-a in the six phylogenetically distinct classes of purple bacteria were analyzed in terms of their esterifying groups in the 17-propionate residues, using high-performance liquid chromatography. Both BChls-a and BPhes-a carrying GG, DHGG and THGG in addition to the usual Phy were found for all the bacterial species studied at measurable levels. In some of the species, the ratio of BPhes-a esterified with GG, DHGG and THGG over the total BPhe-a drastically decreased in comparison with that of the corresponding BChls-a. Especially, the relative content of BPhe-a with GG largely decreased. This observation might indicate that BPhe-a as a cofactor of reaction centers was preferentially esterified with partially reduced and flexible chains (THGG and Phy) rather than less reduced and rigid ones (GG and DHGG).

Coherent Oscillations in Chlorosome Elucidated by Two-Dimensional Electronic Spectroscopy.

Chlorosomes are the most efficient photosynthetic light-harvesting complexes found in nature and consist of many bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) molecules self-assembled into supramolecular aggregates. Here we elucidate the presence and the origin of coherent oscillations in chlorosome at cryogenic temperature using 2D electronic spectroscopy. We observe coherent oscillations of multiple frequencies superimposed on the ultrafast amplitude decay of 2D spectra. Comparison of oscillatory features in the rephasing and nonrephasing 2D spectra suggests that an oscillation of 620 cm(-1) frequency arises from electronic coherence. However, this coherent oscillation can be enhanced by vibronic coupling with intermolecular vibrations of BChl aggregate, and thus it might originate from vibronic coherence rather than pure electronic coherence. Although the 620 cm(-1) oscillation dephases rapidly, the electronic (or vibronic) coherence may still take part in the initial step of energy transfer in chlorosome, which is comparably fast.

Structure-dependent demetalation kinetics of chlorophyll a analogs under acidic conditions.

Demetalation of chlorophyll (Chl) a and its analogs is an important reaction in oxygenic photosynthetic organisms, which produces the primary electron acceptors in photosystem II reaction centers and is crucial in the Chl degradation. From these viewpoints, demetalation reactions of four Chl a analogs, 3,8-divinyl-Chl a (DV-Chl a), 3-devinyl-3-ethyl-Chl a (mesoChl a), 13(2)-demethoxycarbonyl-Chl a (pyroChl a) and protochlorophyll a (PChl a), were kinetically analyzed under weakly acidic conditions, and were compared with that of Chl a. DV-Chl a exhibited slower demetalation kinetics than did Chl a, whereas demetalation of mesoChl a was faster than that of Chl a. The difference in demetalation kinetics of the three chlorophyllous pigments originates from the electron-withdrawing ability of the vinyl group as the peripheral substituent compared with the ethyl group. Removal of the electron-withdrawing and homoconjugating 13(2) -methoxycarbonyl group in Chl a (Chl a → pyroChl a) accelerated demetalation kinetics by two-fold. PChl a possessing the porphyrin-type skeleton exhibited slower demetalation kinetics than Chl a. The structure-dependent demetalation properties of Chl a analogs will be useful for understanding in vivo Chl demetalation reactions in oxygenic photosynthetic organisms.

Identification of 3,4-didehydrorhodopin as major carotenoid in Rhodopseudomonas species.

Recently we isolated the purple photosynthetic bacterium, Rhodopseudomonas sp. Rits, which was phylogenetically related to Rhodopseudomonas (Rps.) palustris. In this study, the light-dependent and time-dependent changes in the carotenoid composition were investigated by HPLC analysis of extracts from the cultures. All seven carotenoids in the biosynthetic pathway from lycopene to spirilloxanthin were detected. Especially, 3,4-didehydrorhodopin, having twelve conjugated double bonds as well as one terminal hydroxy group, was isolated in a remarkably large amount and fully characterized for the first time. The biosynthetic intermediate was commonly found in the Rps. palustris strains (CGA009, Morita and NBRC100419).

Composition and localization of bacteriochlorophyll a intermediates in the purple photosynthetic bacterium Rhodopseudomonas sp. Rits.

Rhodopseudomonas sp. Rits is a recently isolated new species of photosynthetic bacteria and found to accumulate a significantly high amount of bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) a intermediates possessing non-, di- and tetra-hydrogenated geranylgeranyl groups at the 17-propionate as well as normal phytylated BChl a (Mizoguchi T et al. (2006) FEBS Lett 580:137-143). A phylogenetic analysis showed that this bacterium was closely related to Rhodopseudomonas palustris. The strain Rits synthesizes light-harvesting complexes 2 and 4 (LH2/4), as peripheral antennas, as well as the reaction center and light-harvesting 1 core complex (RC-LH1 core). The amounts of these complexes were dependent upon the incident light intensities, which was also a typical behavior of Rhodopseudomonas palustris. HPLC analyses of extracted pigments indicated that all four BChls a were associated with the purified photosynthetic pigment-protein, as complexes described above. The results suggested that this bacterium could use these pigments as functional molecules within the LH2/4 and RC-LH1 core. Pigment compositional analyses in several purple photosynthetic bacteria showed that such BChl a intermediates were always detected and were more widely distributed than expected. Long chains in the propionate moiety of BChl a would be one of the important factors for assembly of LH systems in purple photosynthetic bacteria.