Skip to main content
PMC home page
The Plant Cell logoLink to The Plant Cell
. 1997 Jun;9(6):869–878. doi: 10.1105/tpc.9.6.869

Activation of the silent psbA1 gene in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp strain 6803 produces a novel and functional D1 protein.

G F Salih 1, C Jansson 1
PMCID: PMC156964  PMID: 9212463

Abstract

The photosystem II reaction center protein D1 in Synechocystis sp strain 6803 is encoded by the psbA2 and psbA3 genes of the three-membered psbA gene family. The silent and divergent psbA1 copy of the psbA gene family was activated by exchanging part of its upstream region with a corresponding fragment of the psbA2 copy. The light-regulated expression of the activated psbA1 gene showed that the inserted psbA2 segment contains the information necessary for light-dependent as well as high-light-stimulated transcription. The activated psbA1 gene expressed a novel D1 protein, D1'. A mutant strain containing psbA1 as the only active psbA gene grew photoautotrophically at a rate comparable to that of the wild type. This finding demonstrates that despite its unusual amino acid sequence, D1 is exchangeable for D1 in the photosystem II complex, at least under normal laboratory conditions. The D1' protein was found to have a degradation rate similar to that of the D1 protein under low- or high-light conditions. Another mutant containing the activated psbA1 gene together with the psbA2 and psbA3 genes produced both the D1 and D1' proteins.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (3.3 MB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Chu H. A., Nguyen A. P., Debus R. J. Amino acid residues that influence the binding of manganese or calcium to photosystem II. 1. The lumenal interhelical domains of the D1 polypeptide. Biochemistry. 1995 May 2;34(17):5839–5858. doi: 10.1021/bi00017a016. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Chu H. A., Nguyen A. P., Debus R. J. Amino acid residues that influence the binding of manganese or calcium to photosystem II. 2. The carboxy-terminal domain of the D1 polypeptide. Biochemistry. 1995 May 2;34(17):5859–5882. doi: 10.1021/bi00017a017. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Clarke A. K., Soitamo A., Gustafsson P., Oquist G. Rapid interchange between two distinct forms of cyanobacterial photosystem II reaction-center protein D1 in response to photoinhibition. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1993 Nov 1;90(21):9973–9977. doi: 10.1073/pnas.90.21.9973. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Debus R. J. The manganese and calcium ions of photosynthetic oxygen evolution. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1992 Oct 16;1102(3):269–352. doi: 10.1016/0005-2728(92)90133-m. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Jansson C., Debus R. J., Osiewacz H. D., Gurevitz M., McIntosh L. Construction of an Obligate Photoheterotrophic Mutant of the Cyanobacterium Synechocystis 6803 : Inactivation of the psbA Gene Family. Plant Physiol. 1987 Dec;85(4):1021–1025. doi: 10.1104/pp.85.4.1021. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Kettunen R., Tyystjärvi E., Aro E. M. Degradation pattern of photosystem II reaction center protein D1 in intact leaves. The major photoinhibition-induced cleavage site in D1 polypeptide is located amino terminally of the DE loop. Plant Physiol. 1996 Aug;111(4):1183–1190. doi: 10.1104/pp.111.4.1183. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Li R., Dickerson N. S., Mueller U. W., Golden S. S. Specific binding of Synechococcus sp. strain PCC 7942 proteins to the enhancer element of psbAII required for high-light-induced expression. J Bacteriol. 1995 Feb;177(3):508–516. doi: 10.1128/jb.177.3.508-516.1995. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Metz J., Nixon P., Diner B. Nucleotide sequence of the psbA3 gene from the cyanobacterium Synechocystis PCC 6803. Nucleic Acids Res. 1990 Nov 25;18(22):6715–6715. doi: 10.1093/nar/18.22.6715. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Mohamed A., Eriksson J., Osiewacz H. D., Jansson C. Differential expression of the psbA genes in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis 6803. Mol Gen Genet. 1993 Apr;238(1-2):161–168. doi: 10.1007/BF00279543. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Mohamed A., Jansson C. Influence of light on accumulation of photosynthesis-specific transcripts in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis 6803. Plant Mol Biol. 1989 Dec;13(6):693–700. doi: 10.1007/BF00016024. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Mohamed A., Jansson C. Photosynthetic electron transport controls degradation but not production of psbA transcripts in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis 6803. Plant Mol Biol. 1991 May;16(5):891–897. doi: 10.1007/BF00015080. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Mäenpä P., Kallio T., Mulo P., Salih G., Aro E. M., Tyystjärvi E., Jansson C. Site-specific mutations in the D1 polypeptide affect the susceptibility of Synechocystis 6803 cells to photoinhibition. Plant Mol Biol. 1993 Apr;22(1):1–12. doi: 10.1007/BF00038991. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Nixon P. J., Diner B. A. Aspartate 170 of the photosystem II reaction center polypeptide D1 is involved in the assembly of the oxygen-evolving manganese cluster. Biochemistry. 1992 Jan 28;31(3):942–948. doi: 10.1021/bi00118a041. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Nixon P. J., Komenda J., Barber J., Deak Z., Vass I., Diner B. A. Deletion of the PEST-like region of photosystem two modifies the QB-binding pocket but does not prevent rapid turnover of D1. J Biol Chem. 1995 Jun 23;270(25):14919–14927. doi: 10.1074/jbc.270.25.14919. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Ohad N., Hirschberg J. Mutations in the D1 subunit of photosystem II distinguish between quinone and herbicide binding sites. Plant Cell. 1992 Mar;4(3):273–282. doi: 10.1105/tpc.4.3.273. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Osiewacz H. D., McIntosh L. Nucleotide sequence of a member of the psbA multigene family from the unicellular cyanobacterium Synechocystis 6803. Nucleic Acids Res. 1987 Dec 23;15(24):10585–10585. doi: 10.1093/nar/15.24.10585. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Ravnikar P. D., Debus R., Sevrinck J., Saetaert P., McIntosh L. Nucleotide sequence of a second psbA gene from the unicellular cyanobacterium Synechocystis 6803. Nucleic Acids Res. 1989 May 25;17(10):3991–3991. doi: 10.1093/nar/17.10.3991. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Schaefer M. R., Golden S. S. Differential expression of members of a cyanobacterial psbA gene family in response to light. J Bacteriol. 1989 Jul;171(7):3973–3981. doi: 10.1128/jb.171.7.3973-3981.1989. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Schaefer M. R., Golden S. S. Light availability influences the ratio of two forms of D1 in cyanobacterial thylakoids. J Biol Chem. 1989 May 5;264(13):7412–7417. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Svensson B., Etchebest C., Tuffery P., van Kan P., Smith J., Styring S. A model for the photosystem II reaction center core including the structure of the primary donor P680. Biochemistry. 1996 Nov 19;35(46):14486–14502. doi: 10.1021/bi960764k. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Svensson B., Vass I., Cedergren E., Styring S. Structure of donor side components in photosystem II predicted by computer modelling. EMBO J. 1990 Jul;9(7):2051–2059. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1990.tb07372.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Svensson B., Vass I., Styring S. Sequence analysis of the D1 and D2 reaction center proteins of photosystem II. Z Naturforsch C. 1991 Sep-Oct;46(9-10):765–776. doi: 10.1515/znc-1991-9-1008. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Tyystjärvi T., Aro E. M., Jansson C., Mäenpä P. Changes of amino acid sequence in PEST-like area and QEEET motif affect degradation rate of D1 polypeptide in photosystem II. Plant Mol Biol. 1994 Jun;25(3):517–526. doi: 10.1007/BF00043879. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The Plant Cell are provided here courtesy of Oxford University Press

RESOURCES