Photodamage of pheophytin a (pheo a) in the isolated photosystem Ⅱ (PSⅡ) reaction center D1/D2/Cyt b559 complex from spinach has been investigated by high performance liquid chromatographic method in detail. The results showed that: (1) There is one pheo a molecule which is not associated with the primary photochemistry in the PSⅡ reaction center complex. It may be considered that there are two different electron transfer branches in the PSⅡ reaction center just as in the purple bacterium photosynthetic reaction center. (2) The damaged pheo a may be attributed to the one bonding to the D2 protein comparing the D2 subunit in the PSⅡ reaction center with M subunit in the purple bacterium photosynthetic reaction center. (3) A possible arrangement model of redox cofactors in the PSⅡ reaction center was proposed based on our experiment.
Photodamage of some pigments in the isolated photosystem Ⅱ (PS Ⅱ) reaction center D1/D2/Cyt b559 complex from spinach has been investigated by means of high performance liquid chromatography. The light induced damage of pheophytin a (pheo a) in the complex was observed for the first time. The content of pheo a decreased about 47% by illumination, suggesting only one of the two pheo a molecules in the PSⅡ reaction center complex was damaged. No damage of β carotene was found.
