Plastocyanin function

Plastocyanin functions between cyt bg/f and PS I in the lumen, a continuous space inside the thylakoid membrane system. Fig. 1 illustrates the lateral differences in the membrane composition which may result in an inhomogeneous distribution of plastocyanin in stroma, grana, and exposed grana regions of the lumen. The average distance between PS I and c b5/f in non-appressed and cyt bg/f in appressed membranes is about 20 and 200 nm, respectively. The longer distance from cyt bg/f in appressed membranes may result in a... 

Blue copper proteins. A typical blue copper redox protein contains a single copper atom in a distorted tetrahedral environment. Copper performs the redox function of the protein by cycling between Cu and Cu. Usually the metal binds to two N atoms and two S atoms through a methionine, a cysteine, and two histidines. An example is plastocyanin, shown in Figure 20-29Z>. As their name implies, these molecules have a beautiful deep blue color that is attributed to photon-induced charge transfer from the sulfur atom of cysteine to the copper cation center. 

The reaction-center proteins for Photosystems I and II are labeled I and II, respectively. Key Z, the watersplitting enzyme which contains Mn P680 and Qu the primary donor and acceptor species in the reaction-center protein of Photosystem II Qi and Qt, probably plastoquinone molecules PQ, 6-8 plastoquinone molecules that mediate electron and proton transfer across the membrane from outside to inside Fe-S (an iron-sulfur protein), cytochrome f, and PC (plastocyanin), electron carrier proteins between Photosystems II and I P700 and Au the primary donor and acceptor species of the Photosystem I reaction-center protein At, Fe-S a and FeSB, membrane-bound secondary acceptors which are probably Fe-S centers Fd, soluble ferredoxin Fe-S protein and fp, is the flavoprotein that functions as the enzyme that carries out the reduction of NADP+ to NADPH. 

From 13 completed amino-acid sequences and 54 partial sequences (>40 residues) of plastocyanins from higher plants it appears that sixty residues are invariant and 7 are conservatively substituted 02,7). With three algal plastocyanins included there are 39 invariant or conservatively substituted groups. It is believed that the same structural features apply to the whole family, and that highly conserved residues are an indication of functional sites on the protein surface. The upper hydrophobic and right-hand-side surfaces are believed to be particularly relevant in this context, the latter including four consecutive... 

This discussion of copper-containing enzymes has focused on structure and function information for Type I blue copper proteins azurin and plastocyanin, Type III hemocyanin, and Type II superoxide dismutase s structure and mechanism of activity. Information on spectral properties for some metalloproteins and their model compounds has been included in Tables 5.2, 5.3, and 5.7. One model system for Type I copper proteins39 and one for Type II centers40 have been discussed. Many others can be found in the literature. A more complete discussion, including mechanistic detail, about hemocyanin and tyrosinase model systems has been included. Models for the blue copper oxidases laccase and ascorbate oxidases have not been discussed. Students are referred to the references listed in the reference section for discussion of some other model systems. Many more are to be found in literature searches.50... 

Whatever the explanation, the sensitivity of the remote pK to oxidation state of the Cu is of potential importance in relation to the functional role of plastocyanin. Plastocyanin and its physiological electron transport partner cytochrome f are believed to have complementary surfaces which lead to efficient interaction prior to electron transfer. As will be seen below there is substantial evidence for cytochrome f(II) (as reductant) reacting at the remote site of PCu(II). One problem which may be anticipated here is how dissociation of the product... 

Cucumber basic blue protein (Cbp) is a protein without known function, also known as cusacyanin or plantacyanin. Its structure (Guss et al., 1988) completes the repertoire of cupredoxins with known structures. The topology of its folding is similar (Fig. 5) to those of plastocyanin and azurin, as might have been expected from sequence similarities and... 

Amicyanin (Husain and Davidson, 1986 Groeneveld etal., 1988) spectroscopically resembles plastocyanin more than pseudoazurin and has about the same number of amino acids, so that its classiflcation has been changed from subgroup II to III (the plastocyanin group see Table II). However, its sequence is distinctly different than the plastocyanins, and the new function may indicate yet another class. 

Blue copper proteins, 36 323, 377-378, see also Azurin Plastocyanin active site protonations, 36 396-398 charge, 36 398-401 classification, 36 378-379 comparison with rubredoxin, 36 404 coordinated amino acid spacing, 36 399 cucumber basic protein, 36 390 electron transfer routes, 36 403-404 electron transport, 36 378 EXAFS studies, 36 390-391 functional role, 36 382-383 occurrence, 36 379-382 properties, 36 380 pseudoazurin, 36 389-390 reduction potentials, 36 393-396 self-exchange rate constants, 36 401-403 UV-VIS spectra, 36 391-393 Blue species... 

These two reaction centers in plants act in tandem to catalyze the light-driven movement of electrons from HaO to NADP+ (Fig. 19-49). Electrons are carried between the two photosystems by the soluble protein plastocyanin, a one-electron carrier functionally similar to cytochrome c of mitochondria. To replace the electrons that move from PSII through PSI to NADP+, cyanobacteria and plants oxidize H20 (as green sulfur... 

Like Complex III of mitochondria, cytochrome b6f conveys electrons from a reduced quinone—a mobile, lipid-soluble carrier of two electrons (Q in mitochondria, PQb in chloroplasts)—to a water-soluble protein that carries one electron (cytochrome c in mitochondria, plastocyanin in chloroplasts). As in mitochondria, the function of this complex involves a Q cycle (Fig. 19-12) in which electrons pass, one at a time, from PQBH2 to cytochrome bs. This cycle results in the pumping of protons across the membrane in chloroplasts, the direction of proton movement is from the stromal compartment to the thylakoid lumen, up to four protons moving for each pair of electrons. The result is production of a proton gradient across the thylakoid membrane as electrons pass from PSII to PSI. Because the volume of the flattened thylakoid lumen is small, the influx of a small number of protons has a relatively large effect on lumenal pH. The measured difference in pH between the stroma (pH 8) and the thylakoid lumen (pH 5) represents a 1,000-fold difference in proton concentration—a powerful driving force for ATP synthesis. 

Cyanobacteria can synthesize ATP by oxidative phosphorylation or by photophosphorylation, although they have neither mitochondria nor chloroplasts. The enzymatic machinery for both processes is in a highly convoluted plasma membrane (see Fig. 1-6). Two protein components function in both processes (Fig. 19-55). The proton-pumping cytochrome b6f complex carries electrons from plastoquinone to cytochrome c6 in photosynthesis, and also carries electrons from ubiquinone to cytochrome c6 in oxidative phosphorylation—the role played by cytochrome bct in mitochondria. Cytochrome c6, homologous to mitochondrial cytochrome c, carries electrons from Complex III to Complex IV in cyanobacteria it can also carry electrons from the cytochrome b f complex to PSI—a role performed in plants by plastocyanin. We therefore see the functional homology between the cyanobacterial cytochrome b f complex and the mitochondrial cytochrome bc1 complex, and between cyanobacterial cytochrome c6 and plant plastocyanin. 

The simpler cytochrome bc] complexes of bacteria such as E. coli,102 Paracoccus dentrificans,116 and the photosynthetic Rhodobacter capsulatus117 all appear to function in a manner similar to that of the large mitochondrial complex. The bc] complex of Bacillus subtilis oxidizes reduced menaquinone (Fig. 15-24) rather than ubiquinol.118 In chloroplasts of green plants photochemically reduced plastoquinone is oxidized by a similar complex of cytochrome b, c-type cytochrome /, and a Rieske Fe-S protein.119 120a This cytochrome b6f complex delivers electrons to the copper protein plastocyanin (Fig. 23-18). 

ATP synthesis in chloroplasts. The flow of electrons between PSII and PSI (Fig. 23-18) is of great importance for ATP formation. As previously mentioned, plastocyanin is usually the immediate donor to P700 and serves as a mobile carrier to bring electrons to this reaction center. In this function it is analogous to cytochrome c of mitochondrial membranes. The essentiality of plastocyanin was shown by study of copper-deficient Scenedesmus (Fig. 1-11). The photoreduction of C02 by H2 is impaired in these cells, but the Hill reaction occurs at a normal rate. 

Fig. 5.40. (A) H NMR spectra at 298 K of oxidized spinach plastocyanin at 800 MHz (adapted from [117]). (B) Far downfield region of the H NMR spectra of oxidized (i) P. aeruginosa azurin, (ii) spinach plastocyanin and (iii) cucumber stellacyanin containing signals not observable in direct detection (adapted from [198]). The positions and line widths of the signals were obtained using saturation transfer experiments by plotting the intensity of the respective exchange connectivities with the reduced species as a function of the decoupler irradiation frequency.

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