Genetically introduced hydrogen bond interactions reveal an asymmetric charge distribution on the radical cation of the special-pair chlorophyll P680.

The special-pair chlorophyll (Chl) P680 in photosystem II has an extremely high redox potential (Em ) to enable water oxidation in photosynthesis. Significant positive-charge localization on one of the Chl constituents, PD1 or PD2, in P680+ has been proposed to contribute to this high Em To identify the Chl molecule on which the charge is mainly localized, we genetically introduced a hydrogen bond to the 131-keto C=O group of PD1 and PD2 by changing the nearby D1-Val-157 and D2-Val-156 residues to His, respectively. Successful hydrogen bond formation at PD1 and PD2 in the obtained D1-V157H and D2-V156H mutants, respectively, was monitored by detecting 131-keto C=O vibrations in Fourier transfer infrared (FTIR) difference spectra upon oxidation of P680 and the symmetrically located redox-active tyrosines YZ and YD, and they were simulated by quantum-chemical calculations. Analysis of the P680+/P680 FTIR difference spectra of D1-V157H and D2-V156H showed that upon P680+ formation, the 131-keto C=O frequency upshifts by a much larger extent in PD1 (23 cm-1) than in PD2 (<9 cm-1). In addition, thermoluminescence measurements revealed that the D1-V157H mutation increased the Em of P680 to a larger extent than did the D2-V156H mutation. These results, together with the previous results for the mutants of the His ligands of PD1 and PD2, lead to a definite conclusion that a charge is mainly localized to PD1 in P680^.

Common skate (Raja kenojei) secretes pentraxin into the cutaneous secretion: The first skin mucus lectin in cartilaginous fish.

A lactose-specific lectin with a molecular mass of about 25 kDa was purified from the skin mucus of a cartilaginous fish-the common skate (Raja kenojei). The complementary DNA sequence of the lectin was 1540 bp long and contained a reading frame encoding 226 amino acids, which showed approximately 38% identity to pentraxins of mammals and teleosts. Gene expression was observed in the skin, gill, stomach and intestine in the healthy skate. We also identified an isotype gene from the liver whose deduced amino-acid sequence shared 69.0% identity with the skin type gene. The antiserum detected protein in the skin, where the lectin is localized in the epidermal cells, and in the blood plasma. The lectin genes are multicopied in the common skate genome. Although pentraxins are acute phase proteins, mRNAs of both the isotypes were not upregulated after the in vivo challenge with formalin-killed Escherichia coli, which suggests that they are constantly present in the skin mucus and blood plasma to protect against pathogenic invasion. This lectin is the fifth type of lectin found in the cutaneous secretions of fish, demonstrating that skin mucus lectins have evolved with marked molecular diversity in fish.