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BIOENERGETICS AND PHOTOSYNTHESIS

Involvement of Phycobilisome Diffusion in Energy Quenching in Cyanobacteria¹

Department of Biology, University College London, London WC1E 6BT United Kingdom (S.J., C.W.M.); and Department of Biological Sciences, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL United Kingdom (S.B., N.H.M.)

Nonphotochemical quenching (NPQ) of excitation energy is a well-established phenomenon in green plants, where it serves to protect the photosynthetic apparatus from photodamage under excess illumination. The induction of NPQ involves a change in the function of the light-harvesting apparatus, with the formation of quenching centers that convert excitation energy into heat. Recently, a comparable phenomenon was demonstrated in cyanobacteria grown under iron-starvation. Under these conditions, an additional integral membrane chlorophyll-protein, IsiA, is synthesized, and it is therefore likely that IsiA is required for NPQ in cyanobacteria. We have previously used fluorescence recovery after photobleaching to show that phycobilisomes diffuse rapidly on the membrane surface, but are immobilized when cells are immersed in high-osmotic strength buffers, apparently because the interaction between phycobilisomes and reaction centers is stabilized. Here, we show that when cells of the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 subjected to prolonged iron-deprivation are immersed in 1 M phosphate buffer, NPQ can still be induced as normal by high light. However, the formation of the quenched state is irreversible under these conditions, suggesting that it involves the coupling of free phycobilisomes to an integral-membrane complex, an interaction that is stabilized by 1 M phosphate. Fluorescence spectra are consistent with this idea. Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching measurements confirm that the induction of NPQ in the presence of 1 M phosphate is accompanied by immobilization of the phycobilisomes. We propose as a working hypothesis that a major component of the fluorescence quenching observed in iron-starved cyanobacteria arises from the coupling of free phycobilisomes to IsiA.

² These authors contributed equally to the paper.

³ Present address: School of Biological Sciences, Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS UK.

Article, publication date, and citation information can be found at www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/doi/10.1104/pp.105.061168.

^* Corresponding author; e-mail c.mullineaux{at}qmul.ac.uk; fax (44) 20–8983–0973.

Received February 11, 2005; returned for revision March 14, 2005; accepted March 14, 2005.

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