FTIR spectroscopy of the reaction center of Chloroflexus aurantiacus: photoreduction of the bacteriopheophytin electron acceptor.

Mid-infrared spectral changes associated with the photoreduction of the bacteriopheophytin electron acceptor H(A) in reaction centers (RCs) of the filamentous anoxygenic phototrophic bacterium Chloroflexus (Cfl.) aurantiacus are examined by light-induced Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The light-induced H(A)(-)/H(A) FTIR (1800-1200cm(-1)) difference spectrum of Cfl. aurantiacus RCs is compared to that of the previously well characterized purple bacterium Rhodobacter (Rba.) sphaeroides RCs. The most notable feature is that the large negative IR band at 1674cm(-1) in Rba. sphaeroides R-26, attributable to the loss of the absorption of the 13(1)-keto carbonyl of H(A) upon the radical anion H(A)(-) formation, exhibits only a very minor upshift to 1675cm(-1) in Cfl. aurantiacus. In contrast, the absorption band of the 13¹-keto C=O of H(A)(-) is strongly upshifted in the spectrum of Cfl. aurantiacus compared to that of Rba. sphaeroides (from 1588 to 1623cm(-1)). The data are discussed in terms of: (i) replacing the glutamic acid at L104 in Rba. sphaeroides R-26 RCs by a weaker hydrogen bond donor, a glutamine, at the equivalent position L143 in Cfl. aurantiacus RCs; (ii) a strengthening of the hydrogen-bonding interaction of the 13¹-keto C=O of H(A) with Glu L104 and Gln L143 upon H(A)(-) formation and (iii) a possible influence of the protein dielectric environment on the 13¹-keto C=O stretching frequency of neutral H(A). A conformational heterogeneity of the 13³-ester C=O group of H(A) is detected for Cfl. aurantiacus RCs similar to what has been previously described for purple bacterial RCs.