Destruction of a single chlorophyll is correlated with the photoinhibition of photosystem II with a transiently inactive donor side.

Bumann, D; Oesterhelt, D · Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · 1995

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Pigments destroyed during photoinhibition of water-splitting photosystem II core complexes from the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii were studied. Under conditions of a transiently inactivated donor side, illumination leads to an irreversible inhibition of the electron transfer at the donor side that is paralleled by the destruction of chlorophylls a absorbing maximally around 674 and 682 nm. The observed stochiometry of 1 +/- 0.1 destroyed chlorophyll per inhibited photosystem II suggests that chlorophyll destruction could be the primary photodamage causing the inhibition of photosystem II under these conditions.