Abstract
The self-aggregated state of bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) c molecules in chlorosomes belonging to a bchQ bchR mutant of the green sulfur bacteria Chlorobaculum tepidum, which mostly produces a single 172-farnesyl- (R)-[8-ethyl,12-methyl]BChl c homologue, was characterized by solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and high-resolution electron microscopy. A nearly complete 1H and 13C chemical shift assignment was obtained from well-resolved homonuclear 13C- 13C and heteronuclear 1H-13C NMR data sets collected from 13C-enriched chlorosome preparations. Pronounced doubling (1:1) of specific 13C and 1H resonances revealed the presence of two distinct and nonequivalent BChl c components, attributed to all syn- and all anti-coordinated parallel stacks, depending on the rotation of the macrocycle with respect to the 31-methyl group. Steric hindrance from the 20-methyl functionality induces structural differences between the syn and anti forms. A weak but significant and reproducible reflection at 1/0.69 nm-1 in the direction perpendicular to the curvature of cylindrical segments observed with electron microscopy also suggests parallel stacking of BChl c molecules, though the observed lamellar spacing of 2.4 nm suggests weaker packing than for wild-type chlorosomes. We propose that relaxation of the pseudosymmetry observed for the wild type and a related BChl d mutant leads to extended domains of alternating syn and anti stacks in the bchQ bchR chlorosomes. Domains can be joined to form cylinders by helical syn-anti transition trajectories. The phase separation in domains on the cylindrical surface represents a basic mechanism for establishing suprastructural heterogeneity in an otherwise uniform supramolecular scaffolding framework that is well-ordered at the molecular level. (Figure Presented).
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 4488-4498 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Biochemistry |
Volume | 51 |
Issue number | 22 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 5 2012 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Biochemistry