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Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences logoLink to Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
. 2000 Oct 29;355(1402):1361–1370. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2000.0698

Allosteric regulation of the light-harvesting system of photosystem II.

P Horton 1, A V Ruban 1, M Wentworth 1
PMCID: PMC1692867  PMID: 11127991

Abstract

Non-photochemical quenching of chlorophyll fluorescence (NPQ) is symptomatic of the regulation of energy dissipation by the light-harvesting antenna of photosystem II (PS II). The kinetics of NPQ in both leaves and isolated chloroplasts are determined by the transthylakoid delta pH and the de-epoxidation state of the xanthophyll cycle. In order to understand the mechanism and regulation of NPQ we have adopted the approaches commonly used in the study of enzyme-catalysed reactions. Steady-state measurements suggest allosteric regulation of NPQ, involving control by the xanthophyll cycle carotenoids of a protonation-dependent conformational change that transforms the PS II antenna from an unquenched to a quenched state. The features of this model were confirmed using isolated light-harvesting proteins. Analysis of the rate of induction of quenching both in vitro and in vivo indicated a bimolecular second-order reaction; it is suggested that quenching arises from the reaction between two fluorescent domains, possibly within a single protein subunit. A universal model for this transition is presented based on simple thermodynamic principles governing reaction kinetics.

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Selected References

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