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J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 282, Issue 10, 7198-7208, March 9, 2007
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From the
Melvin Calvin Laboratory, Physical Biosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720-5230, the
Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-5230, the ¶European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Grenoble Cedex 38043, France, the **Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025, and the ||Max-Planck-Institut für Bioanorganische Chemie, D-45470 Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany
Received for publication, November 10, 2006 , and in revised form, December 11, 2006.
| ABSTRACT |
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fluorescence, we are able to extend the extended x-ray absorption fine structure range beyond the onset of the iron absorption edge. This results in improvement in resolution of the manganese-backscatterer distances in PS II from 0.14 to 0.09Å. The high resolution data obtained from oriented spinach PS II membranes in the S1 state show that there are three di-µ-oxo-bridged manganese-manganese distances of
2.7 and
2.8Å in a 2:1 ratio and that these three manganese-manganese vectors are aligned at an average orientation of
60° relative to the membrane normal. Furthermore, we are able to observe the separation of the Fourier peaks corresponding to the
3.2Å manganese-manganese and the
3.4Å manganese-calcium interactions in oriented PS II samples and determine their orientation relative to the membrane normal. The average of the manganese-calcium vectors at
3.4Å is aligned along the membrane normal, while the
3.2Å manganese-manganese vector is oriented near the membrane plane. A comparison of this structural information with the proposed Mn4Ca cluster models based on spectroscopic and diffraction data provides input for refining and selecting among these models. | INTRODUCTION |
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O2 + 4H+ + 4e. Water oxidation is a light-driven reaction that is catalyzed by an oxygen-evolving complex (OEC)4 of Photosystem II (PS II) (14). The active site of the OEC is known to be a protein-bound complex containing four manganese and one calcium atom. This complex cycles through a series of five intermediate redox states that are referred to as S states (S0 to S4) (5). The S state transitions are driven by successive light-induced one-electron oxidations of the PS II reaction center. In each step the complex accumulates oxidizing equivalents until dioxygen is released during the spontaneous return from S4 to S0.
Many of the proposed mechanisms of water oxidation depend critically on knowledge of the Mn4Ca cluster structure. To date, structural models of the OEC complex have been suggested based on EPR techniques (69), x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) (1014), x-ray diffraction (XRD) (1517), and infrared spectroscopy (Fourier transform infrared) (18). The XRD studies (3.03.8 Å resolution) have located the Mn4Ca cluster in the density map (16, 17) and confirmed the presence of calcium in the OEC cluster, as had been shown previously by EPR (1921) and by extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy (22, 23). A recent XAS study showed that the OEC complex is very susceptible to reduction and disruption during x-ray exposure, under the conditions used in collecting the published XRD data (24). Consequently, the precise location of the manganese and calcium atoms has not been reliably established within active OEC centers by XRD, as acknowledged in the most recent study (17).
Manganese XAS enables a detailed analysis of the Mn4Ca cluster in the OEC. X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) contains information on the electronic structure and changes in oxidation states of the manganese that accompany S state transitions (25). EXAFS allows for a precise determination of manganese-backscatterer distances (26) and is, furthermore, very sensitive for establishing the permissible x-ray dose (24).
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R, is dependent on
k, the width of the k-space EXAFS data set (Å1) (for details see supplemental data). The presence of iron, partly an integral component of the OEC and partly from adventitious sources, restricts the useful range in conventional manganese EXAFS to
550 eV (
k = 12.5 Å1) above the manganese edge (iron K-edge at 7120 eV). Consequently, in PS II the manganese-manganese distance resolution is limited to
r = 0.14 Å, meaning that two manganese-manganese vectors should differ greater than 0.14 Å to be resolved. Improvement in manganese-backscatterer distance resolution is critical for precise structural and mechanistic studies of the OEC. Conventional EXAFS spectra of PS II samples are based on the detection of the manganese K
1,2 fluorescence (
5.9 keV) using a solid state detector of at best 150200 eV from full width at half-maximum resolution (2830), making it impossible to discriminate completely against the Fe K
1,2 fluorescence at 6.4 keV (see Fig. 1). This limitation can be overcome by utilizing a crystal monochromator with high resolution (
1 eV) for the fluorescence detection (31, 32). Recently we showed that manganese EXAFS of the OEC can be collected up to
1000 eV (k = 16.1 Å1) above the manganese K-edge (27), improving the manganese-backscatterer distance resolution to 0.09 Å. This enabled us to study the heterogeneity in the manganese-manganese distances of solution samples in the S1 and S2 states, providing evidence for three manganese-manganese distances of
2.7 and
2.8 Å present in a 2:1 ratio (27). These improvements in determining the structural parameters are important for choosing among different proposed structural models, and they provide an opportunity for investigating the changes that occur as the Mn4Ca catalyst cycles through the S states. Additional geometric information about the spatial arrangement of manganese-backscatter vectors can be obtained if oriented PS II samples, such as oriented membranes or single crystals, are used for the measurement of EXAFS dichroism with linearly polarized synchrotron x-rays. Collection of the polarized EXAFS spectra on oriented PS II membranes at different angles between the membrane normal and the x-ray electric field vector results in dichroism that depends on how the particular absorber manganese-backscatter vector is aligned with respect to the electric field of the x-ray beam. Thus, the average orientation of a particular manganese-backscatter vector relative to the membrane normal and the average number of scatterers per absorbing atom can be determined (3335).
Previous studies on oriented native and NH3-treated PS II membranes were based on conventional EXAFS. Average angles relative to the membrane normal of
60° for the
2.7 Å vectors (di-µ-oxo-bridged Mn2 units) and
43° for the
3.3 Å vectors (superposition of mono-µ-oxo-bridged manganese-manganese and manganese-calcium vectors) have been reported in two studies (34, 35), whereas another study reported an average angle of 80 ± 10° for the
2.7 Å vectors without providing results for the
3.3 Å vector (36). Because of the limited resolution, conventional EXAFS is not able to determine the orientations of the individual manganese-manganese and manganese-calcium vectors in the 3.23.4 Å region. In a complementary study, strontium K-edge polarized EXAFS of strontium-reactivated PS II membranes was used to predict the manganese-calcium orientation. It showed a lower and upper limit of 0 and 23°, respectively, for the average angle between the manganese-strontium vector(s) and the membrane normal and yielded an isotropic coordination number of manganese neighbors to strontium of either one or two (23). A recent polarized x-ray absorption spectroscopy study of PS II single crystals from cyanobacteria, using an x-ray dose below the threshold of damage, has derived feasible structures for the Mn4Ca cluster and the orientation of the cluster in the PS II crystal (14).
In this work, we applied range-extended EXAFS to study the dichroism of the Mn4Ca cluster in oriented PS II membranes from spinach chloroplasts. The study shows: (i) the separation of the manganese-manganese (
3.2 Å) and manganese-calcium (
3.4 Å) vectors, which allows independent analysis of their orientation relative to the membrane normal; (ii) the determination of the dichroism characteristics of the three short manganese-manganese vectors (two at 2.7 Å and one at 2.8 Å) and their orientation in the PS II membrane. These results are used to discuss the structure and orientation of the Mn4Ca cluster in the PS II membrane.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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1 h, as described previously (38). This process was repeated five to seven times to generate samples with a sufficiently thick sample layer for the x-ray absorption experiment. The paint-and-dry cycles produce one-dimensionally ordered samples with a preferred orientation of the PS II membrane normal perpendicular to the substrate surface. The extent of orientation (mosaic spread, which is the half-width of the Gaussian distribution of the angle of the membrane normal to the substrate normal in the PS II samples) was assessed from the angle dependence of the Tyr Dox and cytochrome b559 EPR signals (see supplemental data). X-band EPR spectroscopy was performed with a Varian E-109 spectrometer, a standard TE102 cavity, and an Air Products liquid helium cryostat. The samples used in this study displayed a mosaic spread of 1520°. After drying the samples, their integrity was assayed by monitoring the amount of S2 multiline signal formed upon sample illumination at 195 K. The amplitude of the manganese signal was the same as that obtained from randomly oriented membranes at a similar concentration. Manganese K-edge XANES spectra of oriented samples can be used to reconstruct the solution XANES spectrum, which is very sensitive to the manganese oxidation state and damaged PS II centers containing Mn2+. The two spectra are indistinguishable, indicating the intact state of the oriented samples.
Data CollectionThe x-ray spectra were recorded on the BioCAT undulator beamline 18-ID at the Advanced Photon Source (Argonne, IL). The energy of the incident x-rays was selected by means of a nitrogen-cooled silicon double-crystal monochromator at (111) orientation, yielding
1-eV resolution. The monochromator energy was calibrated using the preedge peak energy of KMnO4 at 6543.3 eV. Higher harmonics from the monochromator were rejected by the focusing mirror. The incident beam intensity was set to
4 x 1012 photons/s (
60% of the flux available at 18-ID) at a beam size of 1 x 2 mm2. This allowed us to perform fast EXAFS scans in continuous mode before the onset of radiation damage; 15 s per sweep, energy range 6500 to 7500 eV in 1 eV increments, one sweep per spot on sample, 1520 different spots per sample depending on orientation,
100 samples per orientation. The EXAFS scan parameters were chosen subsequent to and on the basis of a radiation damage study of the samples. XANES spectra were collected under identical conditions (number of photons, time and temperature that were used for subsequent EXAFS measurements), and the inflection point energy of the XANES spectra was monitored for any shifts to establish the safe x-ray dose (24). Radiation damage measurements were determined for both 15 and 75° orientations of the samples used in the study and were repeated each time we had x-ray beamtime at the synchrotron sources to account for any changes in the beam characteristics. A second 15-s sweep of the EXAFS for some samples was collected and the spectra were unchanged, providing additional confirmation of the absence of radiation damage. To avoid unnecessary sample exposure, a beam shutter was automatically inserted when data were not being collected. The manganese K
fluorescence was detected by four spherically bent germanium analyzers (8.9 cm diameter, 85 cm radius of curvature) using the (333) Bragg reflection in a Rowland geometry. The analyzer energy was tuned to the manganese K
1 peak at 5899 eV at a Bragg angle of 74.84°. A nitrogen-cooled solid state (germanium) detector was placed at the common focus of the four crystals on the intersecting Rowland circles. The analyzer bandwidth of 0.8 eV was determined by measuring the elastically scattered peak.
Experimental procedures and limitations for measuring range-extended EXAFS past multiple K- or L-edges, and the design and operation of the spectrometer have been described previously (32, 39). All samples were measured below 10 K in a liquid He cooled cryostat (Oxford CF1208).
Data AnalysisFor each EXAFS scan, the energy was calibrated using the KMnO4 pre-edge reference peak (6543.3 eV), and the intensity was normalized by I0 before averaging. Approximately 1000 scans were averaged for each orientation of PS II membranes relative to the x-ray e-vector with a custom Matlab program. Data reduction of the EXAFS spectra was done as described previously (10, 40). Curve fitting was performed using ab initio calculated phases and amplitudes from the FEFF8 program from the University of Washington (41). These phases and amplitudes were used in the EXAFS Equation 1, which is described below and contains a sinusoidal function that gives the distance and an amplitude function that contains information about the scattering atom and the number of such neighboring atoms.
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The neighboring atoms to the central atom(s) are divided into j shells, with all atoms with the same atomic number and distance from the central atom grouped into a single shell. Within each shell, the coordination number Nj denotes the number of neighboring atoms in shell j at a distance of Rj from the central atom, i. feffj is the ab initio amplitude function for shell j, and the Debye-Waller term
accounts for damping due to both static and thermal disorder in absorber-backscatterer distances. The mean free path term e2Rj/
j(k) reflects losses due to inelastic scattering, where
j(k) is the electron mean free path. The oscillations in the EXAFS spectrum are reflected in the sinusoidal term sin(2kRj +
ij(k)), where
ij(k) is the ab initio phase function for shell j. This sinusoidal term shows the direct relation between the frequency of the EXAFS oscillations in k-space and the absorber-backscatterer distance. The EXAFS equation (Equation 1) was used to fit the experimental Fourier isolates using N, R, and
2 as variable parameters. Fit details and evaluation of fit qualities are given in the supplemental data.
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R
k
1,
Rkmax =
/2 and
R
k =
/2 (40, 42); for more details see the supplemental data (40).
For a detailed explanation of the theory of polarized EXAFS see the supplemental data. Angle
is the angle between the x-ray e-vector and the membrane normal, and
denotes the relative orientation of the manganese-backscatterer (manganese-manganese or manganese-calcium) vector of interest to the membrane normal.
| RESULTS |
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Fig. 4A shows the Fourier transforms of the range-extended EXAFS (k3-weighted) at 15 or 75°. The Fourier transforms exhibit well defined peaks, labeled I, II, IIIA, and IIIB, corresponding to the shells of backscatterers at different "apparent" distances, R', from the manganese absorber. The apparent distance is shorter than the actual distance due to a phase shift induced by the interaction of the given absorber-scatterer pair with the photoelectron. For comparison, the Fourier transforms of the range-extended EXAFS spectra of both orientations, but truncated at 11.5 Å1, are shown in Fig. 4B. Significant improvement in spectral resolution is observed for the range-extended EXAFS data (Fig. 4A). Increased spectral resolution reveals the orientation dependence of peaks II and IIIA and IIIB. The intensity of peak II, which consists of three manganese-manganese distances at 2.7 and 2.8 Å (see below) changes significantly between 15 and 75°, with higher intensity at 75°. Peak III shows a complex nature containing at least two peaks, IIIA and IIIB, with distances of 3.2 and 3.4 Å, respectively. Peak IIIA is more intense at 75° but has a decreased intensity at 15°. Peak IIIB is more intense at 15° but is close to the noise level at 75°.
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3.2 Å) and manganese-calcium (
3.4 Å) vectors to Fourier transform (FT) peak III. The current observation (Fig. 4A) shows the distinct manganese-manganese and manganese-calcium vectors contributing to peak III at different distances and orientations. An assignment of peak IIIB to the manganese-calcium vectors can be made, taking into account the longer distance and different dichroism (oriented predominantly along the membrane normal). The dichroic behavior of peak IIIB (see below) is similar to that reported previously for the manganese-strontium vectors (23). In a like manner peak IIIA, which has a maximum at a shorter distance, can be assigned to the manganese-manganese vector. The intensity of this peak remains sizable also at the 15° orientation, and further analysis (see below) is needed to evaluate the orientation of this vector relative to the membrane normal.
The significant decrease of the half-width of the EXAFS FT peaks obtained in the range-extended EXAFS experiments (compare Fig. 4, A and B) results in good separation of peaks I and II. When phase correction is applied in the Fourier transform of the range-extended EXAFS (k3-weighted) at 15 or 75°, an additional peak, termed I', is seen in Fig. 4C. Manganese-oxygen or manganese-chlorine interactions may be expected at a distance of
2.2 Å (44), although any assignment of this feature must await further studies. Range-extended EXAFS on PS II preparations with bromine substituted for chlorine has the potential for clarifying the involvement of the halide cofactor in the OEC.
The Fourier transforms shown in Fig. 4, A and C, provide the basis for drawing qualitative conclusions about possible distances in the manganese-backscatterer pairs and their preferential orientations relative to the membrane normal. Reliable quantitative results can be obtained by fitting the experimental data using the EXAFS Equation 1, as described under "Materials and Methods" and in the supplemental data. The assignment of each peak and a detailed analysis of the actual distance and orientation of each vector are described below. We will concentrate on FT peaks II and III, because these are from manganese-manganese and manganese-calcium backscattering and provide the most reliable information about the Mn4Ca structure and orientation.
Curve Fitting of EXAFS FT Peak IIFits of Fourier peak II were carried out both separately and in conjunction with peak III (peaks II + III). The large differences in amplitude and envelope shapes of the oscillation of the peak II (and III) isolates at the two different orientations reflect the dichroism observed in the Fourier transform amplitudes (Fig. 5). The quality of the fits is judged using the fit error parameters
and
2; to know how they are determined see the supplemental data (note that
2 is normalized to the number of fit parameters). Fit error parameters reflect the deviation between the simulations and isolates. Fits 14 in Table 1 show the results from fitting one and two manganese-manganese shells to peak II at the 15 and 75° orientations of the S1 state. Addition of the second manganese-manganese shell (fits 3 and 4 in Table 1) results in considerable improvement of the fit quality. With two different manganese-manganese distances at 2.7 and 2.8 Å, the fit error
and
2 decreased by
40% for the two-shell fit relative to the one-shell fit. In our previous range-extended EXAFS study with isotropic solution samples we concluded that peak II is best interpreted as consisting of 2.7 Å and 2.8 Å manganese-manganese vectors (di-µ-oxo-bridged manganese-manganese moieties) with a 2:1 ratio in both S1 and S2 states (27). Our present results on oriented samples support this conclusion.
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= 63 ± 5°, for a 2.74 ± 0.02 Å manganese-manganese vector. Note that two manganese-manganese vectors correspond to Niso = 1.0, which is at the lower border of the error bar; taking into account that the EXAFS technique tends to underestimate N values, the Niso = 1.3 ± 0.3 obtained favors three manganese-manganese interactions (expected Niso = 1.5). The angle is in agreement with that reported earlier based on conventional polarized EXAFS data (34, 35). The new range-extended data show that peak II contains interactions at 2.7 and 2.8 Å, which can be analyzed separately (Table 1, fits 3 and 4). Fig. 6 shows linear plots of Napp derived from fits 3 and 4 in Table 1 (solid squares) against 3cos2
1 (see supplemental Equation S6). Third points (open squares) were obtained from extended EXAFS measurements of isotropic PS II S1 in solution (see supplemental Table S1). Linear fits using only two data points from oriented samples (solid lines) or using three data points including the isotropic values (dashed lines) are nearly identical and result in the same Niso and 
values. Supplemental Fig. S7 shows more traditional polar plots of the Napp derived from fits 1 to 4 in Table 1 and supplemental Table S1 and plotted with respect to the detection angle (
). Analysis of the orientation dependence of the 2.72 ± 0.02 Å manganese-manganese vector results in Niso = 0.88 ± 0.2 (two manganese-manganese interactions) at an average angle 
= 61 ± 5°, with respect to the membrane normal. The 2.83 ± 0.02 Å manganese-manganese vector exhibits Niso = 0.46 ± 0.12 (one manganese-manganese interaction) at an angle 
= 64 ± 10° with respect to the membrane normal.
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0 for contributions close to the noise level or estimate the upper limit of the Napp based on proportionality of the reduced amplitude of FT peak IIIA or IIIB to the peak maximum at the same R' in the complementary orientation. When the measured amplitude was close to the calculated noise level (between 4 and 10 Å in the FTs), as for the manganese-calcium interaction, the noise level in the FT spectrum was used to estimate the upper limit of Napp. The upper limits of the Napp for manganese-manganese and manganese-calcium interactions are listed in Table 2.
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1, as was done for Peak II in Fig. 6. A third point (open squares) was obtained from extended EXAFS measurements of isotropic PS II S1 in solution (supplemental Table S2). A linear fit using only two data points from oriented samples (solid lines) and a fit using three data points including the isotropic values (dashed lines) are similar and, within experimental error, result in similar Niso and 
values. The orientation dependence of Napp for the manganese-manganese 3.2 ± 0.02 Å vector (see Table 2) results in Niso = 0.39 ± 0.1 and 
= 70°. These values are consistent with a single manganese-manganese 3.2 Å vector, for which the expected value of Niso is 0.5.
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= 0°. This value favors one manganese-calcium interaction at 3.40 ± 0.02 Å; however, taking into account the error range and previous data of Cinco et al. (22) the possibility of two interactions at this distance cannot be excluded (22). The upper limit of this angle was estimated to be 18° in this work and 23° by Cinco et al. (23) for the strontium-manganese interaction. Despite relatively high uncertainty, we can conclude that this vector is aligned near to the membrane normal. | DISCUSSION |
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The recent range-extended EXAFS study of PS II in solution provides evidence supporting the presence of three di-µ-oxo-bridged manganese-manganese vectors in the native S1 and S2 states (27). The conclusion is based on the fits of the Fourier peak II and II + III isolates, which demonstrated that: (i) two distinct manganese-manganese vectors contribute to peak II (2.7 and 2.8 Å); (ii) there is an unequal distribution of the coordination numbers of N1 (2.7 Å) and N2 (2.8 Å), which would be consistent with the presence of three di-µ-oxo-bridged manganese-manganese moieties; (iii) the fit clearly improved when the N1/N2 ratio is close to 2:1 with Ntot
1.5. The difference between the two di-µ-oxo-bridged manganese-manganese distances is approximately 0.1 Å for both the S1 and the S2 state, which explains why the traditional EXAFS study with a distance resolution of 0.14 Å was unable to reveal such distance heterogeneity.
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2.7 Å) vector and manganese-manganese (
2.8 Å) vector both have similar orientation of
60° to the membrane normal, as summarized in Table 3. The averaged (
2.72.8 Å) vector is oriented at
63°, which is the same as the value reported earlier from conventional EXAFS studies with oriented PS II membranes (34).
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FT Peak III; Orientation of the Long Manganese-Manganese and Manganese-Calcium Vectors Relative to the Membrane NormalFits to EXAFS data allow consideration of some relevant questions about the chemical nature of backscatterers contributing to peak III and, now, about the orientation of those manganese-backscatterer vectors relative to the membrane normal. Calcium was included in the fit combination because it has been implicated as a structural element of the OEC through O2 evolution activity (19, 45, 6266), EPR (20), and calcium- and strontium-EXAFS experiments (22, 23). In conventional EXAFS experiments it was noticed previously that the addition of the manganese-calcium vector to the manganese-manganese long interaction improves fit qualities. The evidence that peak III cannot be a result of only manganese-calcium interactions came from a study in which the manganese EXAFS spectrum of calcium-depleted PS II showed a peak III with decreased intensity (43). High resolution range-extended EXAFS data on oriented PS II membranes provide new experimental support for the conclusion that peak III contains both manganese-manganese and manganese-calcium interactions; the combination of oriented preparations and range-extended EXAFS allows the two types of interactions to be resolved. Information about the relative orientation of the manganese-strontium vectors was reported in the earlier study of strontium-reconstituted, oriented PS II membranes (23).
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3.2 Å) vector is oriented more toward the membrane plane. The average of both vectors is in agreement with the results from conventional EXAFS:
43° for the
3.3 Å vectors (combination of mono-µ-oxo-bridged manganese-manganese and manganese-calcium vectors) (34).
Structure and Orientation of the Mn4Ca Cluster in PS IIThe structural information about the Mn4Ca cluster in the S1 state, based on polarized EXAFS data, is summarized in Table 3. Topological models for the Mn4 cluster compatible with the EXAFS data (27) and containing three short 2.72.8 Å manganese-manganese vectors and one manganese-manganese interaction at 3.2 Å are shown in Fig. 8A. Previously, dichroism characteristics of only the averages of the short manganese-manganese vectors at
2.7 Å and the long manganese-manganese and manganese-calcium interactions at
3.3 Å were known (34). Those data were not sufficient to restrict the possible orientations of the proposed models with respect to the PS II membrane or the PS II protein frame. With the new range-extended EXAFS data, we can for the first time determine independently the angle dependence for three different (2.8 Å, averaged 2.7 Å, and 3.2 Å) manganese-manganese vectors relative to the membrane normal. This allows us to impose additional restrictions on proposed structural models. The importance of the results in Table 3 is that they restrict the angles of the manganese-manganese or manganese-calcium vectors relative to the membrane normal for all three manganese-manganese vectors simultaneously.
Knowledge of the angles between the membrane normal and each of three different vectors involving manganese-manganese interactions allows us to determine whether one or more orientations for any particular model are consistent with the dichroism data. For this purpose we used the averaged 2.7, 2.8, and 3.2 Å manganese-manganese vectors, and we illustrate this approach for each of the models in Fig. 8A; the orientations shown in Fig. 8B are in agreement with the dichroism measurements. We emphasize that there may be other models that can be tested in this manner (this would include structural and optical isomers of listed models). There are two possibilities for the placement of the 2.8 Å manganese-manganese vector for Model I and three possibilities for Model II. As structures Ia and Ib and IIa, IIb, and IIc in Fig. 8B demonstrate, different placement of the 2.8 Å manganese-manganese vectors results in rather small changes in the orientation of models, as follows from the close values of the angle of 2.8 Å manganese-manganese vector and averaged angle of two 2.7 Å manganese-manganese vectors to the membrane normal (
60°, Table 3). Uncertainty in the angle between the 3.2 Å manganese-manganese vector and membrane normal (>70, Table 3) results in a subset of model orientations as this angle changes within the determined range; however, this does not produce dramatic changes in the model orientations. Model III has a high degree of rotational freedom for the 3.2 Å manganese-oxygen-manganese mono-µ-oxo unit that results in multiple solutions; in Fig. 8B we show only one such example. There are many possibilities for the placement of calcium in the models shown in Fig. 8B, and the average orientation of the manganese-calcium vector can best be described to be within a cone about the membrane normal, as shown in Fig. 8C. Using the results of polarized EXAFS (Table 3), the range of possible orientations of the models to the membrane normal can be dramatically reduced as illustrated in Fig. 8B. However, the following uncertainties remain: (i) rotational ambiguity in the membrane plane, which is always present for one-dimensionally oriented samples such as oriented membranes and (ii) multiple possibilities for calcium coordination; present data do not allow us to distinguish clearly whether there is one or two manganese-calcium interactions as well as precise angle between the manganese-calcium vector and the membrane normal.
The geometric information obtained from polarized EXAFS measurements on spinach membranes provides an important tool for testing proposed Mn4Ca models from other studies. For example, results from this study can be compared with the models from x-ray crystal structures from cyanobacteria. The PS II x-ray structures at 3.5 and 3.0 Å resolution (16, 17) indicate three manganese-calcium interactions at 3.23.4 Å distances, with average manganese-calcium angles of
40° and
34° to the membrane normal for the two different structures, respectively (16, 17). Those angles are larger than the upper limit from this study of
18° and from the strontium-reconstituted PS II membrane study (23) of
23°. In Ferreira et al. (16) two manganese-manganese interactions at
3.2 Å were modeled in the OEC structure with an average angle of
48° to the membrane normal, which is different from the lower limit of
70° from this study. In Loll et al. (17), the
3.2 Å manganese-manganese interactions form an average angle of
61°, which is closer to the results in this study. However, the OEC in Loll et al. (17) contain two
2.7 Å and two
3.2 Å manganese-manganese vectors, compared with the three
2.7 Å and one
3.2 Å manganese-manganese distances required by EXAFS data.
Recently the polarized EXAFS measurements on PS II single crystals of the thermophilic cyanobacterium Thermosynechococcus elongatus combined with XRD resulted in a set of high resolution structures for the Mn4Ca cluster (14). Model I from Yano et al. (14) has all three (averaged 2.7, 2.8, and 3.2 Å) manganese-manganese vectors oriented differently relative to the membrane normal compared with those determined in this study (Table 3) and is less favored (14). Models II and III from Yano et al. (14) are similar to IIa in this study (Fig. 8B), with the
60° orientation of the 2.8 Å manganese-manganese vector and
80° orientation of the 3.2 Å manganese-manganese vector relative to the membrane normal; however, the averaged orientation of the 2.7 Å manganese-manganese vectors to the membrane normal is
40° compared with
60° (Table 3). This difference in orientation of the averaged 2.7 Å vectors with respect to the membrane normal could be due to the inherent errors in the determination of the angles in this method, or we speculate that this variation in orientation could reflect the differences in PS II from thermophilic cyanobacteria versus spinach. Also note that the resolution of the two experiments is different; analysis of the single crystal EXAFS data involve considerations of the protein unit cell symmetry, while oriented membranes have a unique axis along the membrane normal with rotational uncertainty in the plane of the membrane.
Range-extended EXAFS provides an important technical development that allows differentiation of the 2.7 and 2.8 Å manganese-manganese, the 3.2 Å manganese-manganese, and the 3.4 Å manganese-calcium interactions. Detailed information about the orientation of manganese-manganese and manganese-calcium vectors in the OEC in the S1 state provide a critical starting point for the analysis of the structural changes in the OEC throughout the catalytic S state cycle.
| FOOTNOTES |
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The on-line version of this article (available at http://www.jbc.org) contains supplemental data (including Equations S1S7), Figs. S1S8, Tables S1S3, and Refs. 19. ![]()
This article was selected as a Paper of the Week. ![]()
2 Supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Me 1629/2-3). ![]()
1 To whom correspondence may be addressed: 1 Cyclotron Rd., Calvin Laboratory, Physical Biosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720. Tel.: 510-486-4330; Fax: 510-486-6059; E-mail: jyano{at}lbl.gov. 3 To whom correspondence may be addressed: 1 Cyclotron Rd., Calvin Laboratory, Physical Biosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720. Tel.: 510-486-4330; Fax: 510-486-6059; E-mail: vkyachandra{at}lbl.gov.
4 The abbreviations used are: OEC, oxygen-evolving complex; EXAFS, extended x-ray absorption fine structure; FT, Fourier transform; PS II, photosystem II; XANES, x-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy; XAS, x-ray absorption spectroscopy; XRD, x-ray diffraction; MES, 4-morpholineethanesulfonic acid. ![]()
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