Binding sites of quinones in photosynthetic bacterial reaction centers investigated by light-induced FTIR difference spectroscopy: symmetry of the carbonyl interactions and close equivalence of the QB vibrations in Rhodobacter sphaeroides and Rhodopseudomonas viridis probed by isotope labeling.

The photoreduction of the secondary quinone acceptor QB in reaction centers (RCs) of the photosynthetic bacteria Rhodobacter sphaeroides and Rhodopseudomonas viridis has been investigated by light-induced FTIR difference spectroscopy of RCs reconstituted with several isotopically labeled ubiquinones. The labels used were 18O on both carbonyls and 13C either uniformly or selectively at the 1- or the 4-position, i.e., on either one of the two carbonyls. The QB-/QB spectra of RCs reconstituted with the isotopically labeled and unlabeled quinones as well as the double differences calculated from these spectra exhibit distinct isotopic shifts for a number of bands attributed to vibrations of QB and QB-. The vibrational modes of the quinone in the QB site are compared to those of ubiquinone in vitro, leading to band assignments for the C = O and C = C vibrations of the neutral QB and for the CO and CC of the semiquinone. The C = O frequency of each of the carbonyls of the unlabeled quinone is revealed at 1641 cm-1 for both species. This demonstrates symmetrical and weak hydrogen bonding of the two C = O groups to the protein at the QB site. In contrast, the C = C vibrations are not equivalent for selective labeling at C1 or at C4, although they both contribute to the approximately 1617-cm-1 band in the QB-/QB spectra of the two species. Compared to the vibrations of isolated ubiquinone, the C = C mode of QB does not involve displacement of the C4 carbon atom, while the motion of C1 is not hindered. Further analysis of the the spectra suggests that the protein at the binding site imposes a specific constraint on the methoxy and/or the methyl group proximal to the C4 carbonyl. The FTIR observations provide compelling evidence for almost identical conformation and identical interactions of the ubiquinone in the QB binding site of Rb. sphaeroides and Rp. viridis in contrast to the X-ray structures, which yield different descriptions for the hydrogen-bonding pattern of QB binding. In the semiquinone state, the bonding interactions of the CO groups are also symmetrical and the CC are inequivalent at C1 and C4. However, the interactions are almost the same in the RCs of both species.