On the mechanism of photosynthetic electron transfer in Rhodopseudomonas capsulata and Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides

Abstract (1) Current models for the mechanism of cyclic electron transport in Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides and Rhodopseudomonas capsulata have been investigated by observing the kinetics of electron transport in the presence of inhibitors, or in photosynthetically incompetent mutant strains. (2) In addition to its well-characterized effect on the Rieske-type iron sulfur center, 5-(n-undecyl)-6-hydroxy-4,7-dioxobenzothiazole (UHDBT) inhibits both cytochrome b50 and cytochrome b−90 reduction induced by flash excitation in Rps. sphaeroides and Rps. capsulata. The concentration dependency of the inhibition in the presence of antimycin (approx. 2.7 mol UHDBT/mol reaction center for 50% inhibition of extent) is very similar to that of its inhibition of the antimycin-insensitive phase of ferricytochrome c re-reduction. UHDBT did not inhibit electron transfer between the reduced primary acceptor ubiquinone (Q⨪I) and the secondary acceptor ubiquinone (QII) of the reaction center acceptor complex. A mutant of Rps. capsulata, strain R126, lacked both the UHDBT and antimycin-sensitive phases of cytochrome c re-reduction, and ferricytochrome b50 reduction on flash excitation. (3) In the presence of antimycin, the initial rate of cytochrome b50 reduction increased about 10-fold as the Eh(7.0) was lowered below 180 mV. A plot of the rate at the fastest point in each trace against redox potential resembles the Nernst plot for a two-electron carrier with Em(7.0) ≈ 125 ± 15 mV. Following flash excitation there was a lag of 100–500 μs before cytochrome b50 reduction began. However, there was a considerably longer lag before significant reduction of cytochrome c by the antimycin-sensitive pathway occurred. (4) The herbicide ametryne inhibited electron transfer between Q⨪I and QII. It was an effective inhibitor of cytochrome b50 photoreduction at Eh(7.0) 390 mV, but not at Eh(7.0) 100 mV. At the latter Eh, low concentrations of ametryne inhibited turnover after one flash in only half of the photochemical reaction centers. By analogy with the response to o-phenanthroline, it is suggested that ametryne is ineffective at inhibiting electron transfer from Q⨪I to the secondary acceptor ubiquinone when the latter is reduced to the semiquinone form before excitation. (5) At Eh(7.0) > 200 mV, antimycin had a marked effect on the cytochrome b50 reduction-oxidation kinetics but not on the cytochrome c and reaction center changes or the slow phase III of the electrochromic carotenoid change on a 10-ms time scale. This observation appears to rule out a mechanism in which cytochrome b50 oxidation is obligatorily and kinetically linked to the antimycin-sensitive phase of cytochrome c reduction in a reaction involving transmembrane charge transfer at high Eh values. However, at lower redox potentials, cytochrome b50 oxidation is more rapid, and may be linked to the antimycin-sensitive reduction of cytochrome c. (6) It is concluded that neither a simple linear scheme nor a simple Q-cycle model can account adequately for all the observations. Future models will have to take account of a possible heterogeneity of redox chains resulting from the two-electron gate at the level of the secondary quinone, and of the involvement of cytochrome b−90 in the rapid reactions of the cyclic electron transfer chain