Plastoquinone reduced

Cytochrome b f is used in place of cytochrome bc in cyanobacteria and chloroplasts. Light energy utilized by PSII results in plastoquinol production from plastoquinone. Reducing equivalents carried by the plastoquinol are then transferred across b(,f, through cytochromes bound to b(,f, to plastocyanin or cytochrome c. Reduced plastocyanin or cytochrome ce is then used to rereduce PSI. The crystal structure of cytochrome b(,f at 3.0 A resolution is shown... 

FIGURE 22.15 The structures of plasto-quiuoue and its reduced form, plastohydro-quiuoue (or plastoquiuol). The oxidation of the hydroquiuoue releases 2 as well as 2 c. The form shown (plastoquinone A) has nine isoprene units and is the most abundant plastoquinone in plants and algae. Other plasto-quinones have different numbers of isoprene units and may vary in the substitutions on the quinone ring. 

Ubiquinone or Q (coenjyme Q) (Figure 12-5) finks the flavoproteins to cytochrome h, the member of the cytochrome chain of lowest redox potential. Q exists in the oxidized quinone or reduced quinol form under aerobic or anaerobic conditions, respectively. The structure of Q is very similar to that of vitamin K and vitamin E (Chapter 45) and of plastoquinone, found in chloroplasts. Q acts as a mobile component of the respiratory chain that collects reducing equivalents from the more fixed flavoprotein complexes and passes them on to the cytochromes. 

In a partly biological, partly artificial model (page 397) reduced anthraquinone-2-sulphonate plays the role of NAD+ and tetramethyl-p-phenylenediamine that of plastoquinones. 

PS II absorbs more light than PS I. As such PS I cannot take electrons as fast as PS II can supply, leaving plastoquinone in its reduced state. This reduced plastoquinone activates a protein kinase that phosphorylates the threonine (Thr) residue of the LHCs that in turn migrate to the unstacked portion of the thylakoid membrane where it binds to PS I. As a result, a large portion of incident light is funneled to PS I. 

The role of ubiquinone (coenzyme Q, 4) in transferring reducing equivalents in the respiratory chain is discussed on p. 140. During reduction, the quinone is converted into the hydroquinone (ubiquinol). The isoprenoid side chain of ubiquinone can have various lengths. It holds the molecule in the membrane, where it is freely mobile. Similar coenzymes are also found in photosynthesis (plastoquinone see p. 132). Vitamins E and K (see p. 52) also belong to the quinone/hydroquinone systems. 

Proton gradients can be built up in various ways. A very unusual type is represented by bacteriorhodopsin (1), a light-driven proton pump that various bacteria use to produce energy. As with rhodopsin in the eye, the light-sensitive component used here is covalently bound retinal (see p. 358). In photosynthesis (see p. 130), reduced plastoquinone (QH2) transports protons, as well as electrons, through the membrane (Q cycle, 2). The formation of the proton gradient by the respiratory chain is also coupled to redox processes (see p. 140). In complex III, a Q,cycle is responsible for proton translocation (not shown). In cytochrome c oxidase (complex IV, 3), trans-... 

Because photosystem 11 and the cytochrome b/f complex release protons from reduced plastoquinone into the lumen (via a Q. cycle), photosynthetic electron transport establishes an electrochemical gradient across the thylakoid membrane (see p. 126), which is used for ATP synthesis by an ATP synthase. ATP and NADPH+H", which are both needed for the dark reactions, are formed in the stroma. 

PS II reduces plastoquinone (PQ) at the acceptor side, the required electrons are withdrawn from water leading to release of molecular oxygen and protons on the inside of the membrane. Conceptually, the complex can be divided into 2 parts, the photochemical one with the light-driven electron-transport chain, and the catalytic one, which is responsible for water oxidation. 

In addition to NAD and flavoproteins, three other types of electron-carrying molecules function in the respiratory chain a hydrophobic quinone (ubiquinone) and two different types of iron-containing proteins (cytochromes and iron-sulfur proteins). Ubiquinone (also called coenzyme Q, or simply Q) is a lipid-soluble ben-zoquinone with a long isoprenoid side chain (Fig. 19-2). The closely related compounds plastoquinone (of plant chloroplasts) and menaquinone (of bacteria) play roles analogous to that of ubiquinone, carrying electrons in membrane-associated electron-transfer chains. Ubiquinone can accept one electron to become the semi-quinone radical ( QH) or two electrons to form ubiquinol (QH2) (Fig. 19-2) and, like flavoprotein carriers, it can act at the junction between a two-electron donor and a one-electron acceptor. Because ubiquinone is both small and hydrophobic, it is freely diffusible within the lipid bilayer of the inner mitochondrial membrane and can shuttle reducing equivalents between other, less mobile electron carriers in the membrane. And because it carries both electrons and protons, it plays a central role in coupling electron flow to proton movement. 

The light-driven splitting of H20 is catalyzed by a Mn-containing protein complex 02 is produced. The reduced plastoquinone carries electrons to the cytochrome b6f complex from here they pass to plastocyanin, and then to P700 to replace those lost during its photoexcitation. 

The extent to which an electron carrier is oxidized or reduced during photosynthetic electron transfer can sometimes be observed directly with a spectrophotometer. When chloroplasts are illuminated with 700 nm light, cytochrome/, plastocyanin, and plastoquinone are oxidized. When chloroplasts are illuminated with 680 nm light, however, these electron carriers are reduced. Explain. 

Addition of the hydroxyl group of the reduced ubiquinone or plastoquinone to the adjacent double bond leads to a chroman-6-ol structure. The compounds derived from ubiquinone in this way are called H ubichromanols (Fig. 15-24). 

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). 

The electron acceptors on the reducing side of photosystem II resemble those of purple bacterial reaction centers. The acceptor that removes an electron from P680 is a molecule of pheophytin a. The second and third acceptors are plastoquinones (see fig. 15.10). As in bacterial reaction centers, electrons move one at a time from the first quinone to the second. When the second quinone becomes doubly reduced, it picks up protons from the stromal side of the thylakoid membrane and dissociates from the reaction center. 

The chain of carriers between the two photosystems includes the cytochrome b6f complex and a copper protein, plastocyanin. Like the mitochondrial and bacterial cytochrome be i complexes, the cytochrome b(J complex contains a cytochrome with two b-type hemes (cytochrome b6), an iron-sulfur protein, and a c-type cytochrome (cytochrome /). As electrons move through the complex from reduced plastoquinone to cytochrome/, plastoquinone probably executes a Q cycle similar to the cycle we presented for UQ in mitochondria and photosynthetic bacteria (see figs. 14.11 and 15.13). The cytochrome bbf complex provides electrons to plastocyanin, which transfers them to P700 in the reaction center of photosystem I. The electron carriers between P700 and NADP+ and between H20 and P680 are... 

If the reaction centers of photosystem I and photosystem II are segregated into separate regions of the thylakoid membrane, how can electrons move from photosystem I to photosystem II Evidently the plastoquinone that is reduced in photosystem II can diffuse rapidly in the membrane, just as ubiquinone does in the mitochondrial inner membrane. Plastoquinone thus carries electrons from photosystem II to the cytochrome b6f complex. Plastocyanin acts similarly as a mobile electron carrier from the cytochrome b f complex to the reaction center of photosystem I, just as cytochrome c carries electrons from the mitochondrial cytochrome bct complex to cytochrome oxidase and as a c-type cytochrome provides electrons to the reaction centers of purple bacteria (see fig. 15.13). 

Photosystems I and II operate in concert. Their interaction is described in the Z scheme (shown in outline in Figure 18). In photosystem II, the primary oxidant is able to remove electrons from water. These electrons are transported to photosystem I via plastoquinone and plastocyanin to replace PSI electrons that have been used in the reduction of iron-sulfur proteins and transferred via NADP to 0O2. Electron flow between PSII and PSI is accompanied by the synthesis of Atp 367 These oxidizing and reducing aspects of photosynthesis can be separated and other substrates incorporated. 

Triazine (e.g., atrazine, simazine) and substituted urea (e.g., diuron, monuron) herbicides bind to the plastoquinone (PQ)-binding site on the D1 protein in the PS II reaction center of the photosynthetic electron transport chain. This blocks the transfer of electrons from the electron donor, QA, to the mobile electron carrier, QB. The resultant inhibition of electron transport has two major consequences (i) a shortage of reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADP+), which is required for C02 fixation and (ii) the formation of oxygen radicals (H202, OH, etc.), which cause photooxidation of important molecules in the chloroplast (e.g., chlorophylls, unsaturated lipids, etc.). The latter is the major herbicidal consequence of the inhibition of photosynthetic electron transport. 

The photosynthetic process involves photochemical reactions followed by sequential dark chemical transformations (Fig. 3). The photochemical processes occur in two photoactive sites, photosystem I and photosystem II (PS-I and PS-II, respectively), where chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b act as light-active compounds [6, 8]. Photoinduced excitation of photosystem I results in an electron transfer (ET) process to ferredoxin, acting as primary electron acceptor. This ET process converts light energy to chemical potential stored in the reduced ferredoxin and oxidized chlorophyll. Photoexcitation of PS-II results in a similar ET process where plastoquinone acts as electron acceptor. The reduced photoproduct generated in PS-II transfers the electron across a chain of acceptors to the oxidized chlorophyll of PS-I and, consequently, the light harnessing component of PS-I is recycled. Reduced ferredoxin formed in PS-I induces a series of ET processes,... 

Figure 4. Scheme for proton transfer by plastoquinone as a mobile carrier in membrane lipid. Electrons are transferred one by one to a bound plastoquinone A (PQA) which in turn reduces external plastoquinone. When reduced, the anionic plastoquinone takes up protons to become a hydroquinone which is oxidized by the cytochrome bb f complex on the inside of the membrane to release protons. A second quinone, vitamin K, (KQ) is also involved in chloroplast electron transport, but its role in proton movement is not known. 

Figure 2. Schematic of photoinduced electron transport and phosphorylation reactions considered to occur in chloroplast lamellae [from Moreland and Hilton (2)]. Open arrows indicate light reactions solid arrows indicate dark reactions and the narrow dashed line represents the cyclic pathway. Abbreviations used PS I, photosystem I PS II, photosystem II Y, postulated electron donor for photosystem II Q, unknown primary electron acceptor for photosystem II PQ, plastoquinones cyt b, b-type cytochromes cyt f, cytochrome f PC, plastocyanin P700, reaction center chlorophyll of photosystem I FRS, ferredoxin-reducing substance Fd, ferredoxin Fp, ferredoxin-NADP oxidoreductase FeCy, ferricyanide asc, ascorbate and DPIP, 2,6-dichloropheno-lindophenol. The numbers la, lb, 2, 3, and 4 indicate postulated sites of action by...

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