skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: The involvement of H sub 2 O sub 2 in photoinhibition of photosystem II

Conference · · Plant Physiology, Supplement; (United States)
OSTI ID:5400219

The involvement of H{sub 2}O{sub 2} in the inactivation of photosystem II and degradation of the D1 protein induced by high light intensities was investigated. Depletion of C1{sup {minus}} from the oxygen-evolving complex (OEC), which accelerates the rate of photoinhibition, allows the OEC to oxidize water to H{sub 2}O{sub 2} rather than to O{sub 2}. The rate of photoinhibition in thylakoids was accelerated more than 2 fold when the endogenous F-catalase is inhibited by 1 mM KCN. The acceleration of photoinhibition by KCN was observed for both C1{sup {minus}}-depleted and C1{sup {minus}}-sufficient thylakoids, which suggests a second site for the formation of H{sub 2}O{sub 2} in PSII. The ability of the reducing side of PSII to reduce O{sub 2} to H{sub 2}O{sub 2} during photoinhibition was eliminated by the addition of the coupled enzyme systems: glucose oxidase with glucose and horseradish peroxidase with catechol. The slow rate of photoinhibition in the presence of these coupled enzyme systems suggests that a second site of photoinhibitory H{sub 2}O{sub 2} production is from O{sub 2} on the reducing side of PSII. Addition of H{sub 2}O{sub 2} was found to induce a low temperature EPR signal centered at g = 2 which is similar to the EPR signal attributed to the induction of photoinhibition in C1{sup {minus}}-depleted samples. A comparison of the degradation products of the D1 protein induced by a 60 min exposure to either photoinhibitory illumination or to exogenous H{sub 2}O{sub 2} was also made using a polyclonal antibody to D1. From these results the authors propose that photoinhibition and D1 degradation is induced by H{sub 2}O{sub 2} produced by PSII at high light intensities. H{sub 2}O{sub 2} may inactivated D1 by crosslinking two tyrosines on the protein and/or by cleavage of the D1 at the three positions where glycine follows asparagine in the sequence.

OSTI ID:
5400219
Report Number(s):
CONF-9107184-; CODEN: PPYSA
Journal Information:
Plant Physiology, Supplement; (United States), Vol. 96:1; Conference: Annual meeting of the American Society of Plant Physiology, Albuquerque, NM (United States), 28 Jul - 1 Aug 1991; ISSN 0079-2241
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English