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LHCII can substitute for LHCI as an antenna for photosystem I but with reduced light-harvesting capacity

Nature Plants volume 2, Article number: 16131 (2016) Cite this article

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Abstract

Light-harvesting complexes (LHCs) are major constituents of the antenna systems in higher plant photosystems. Four Lhca subunits are tightly bound to the photosystem I (PSI) core complex, forming its outer antenna moiety called LHCI. The Arabidopsis thaliana mutant ΔLhca lacks all Lhca1–4 subunits and compensates for its decreased antenna size by binding LHCII trimers, the main constituent of the photosystem II antenna system, to PSI. In this work we have investigated the effect of LHCI/LHCII substitution by comparing the light harvesting and excitation energy transfer efficiency properties of PSI complexes isolated from ΔLhca mutants and from the wild type, as well as the consequences for plant growth. We show that the excitation energy transfer efficiency was not compromised by the substitution of LHCI with LHCII but a significant reduction in the absorption cross-section was observed. The absence of LHCI subunits in PSI thus significantly limits light harvesting, even on LHCII binding, inducing, as a consequence, a strong reduction in growth.

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Figure 1: Genetic and biochemical characterization of the ΔLhca mutant.
Figure 2: Biochemical characterization of pigment–protein complexes.
Figure 3: Absorption spectra of PSI complexes.
Figure 4: Role of red-shifted absorption forms under canopy conditions.
Figure 5: Time-resolved fluorescence maps of different supercomplexes.
Figure 6: Decay-associated spectra of PSI supercomplexes.
Figure 7: Trapping time and quantum yield of PSI supercomplexes.

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Acknowledgements

The work was financed by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry (MIPAAF) project HYDROBIO and by the Marie Curie Actions Initial Training Networks ACCLIPHOT (PITN-GA-2012-316427) and S2B (675006–SE2B) to R.B. G.C. acknowledges support from the European Research Council Advanced Grant STRATUS (ERC-2011-AdG No. 291198).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Biotecnologie, Università di Verona, Strada Le Grazie 15, I-37134 Verona, Italy

    Mauro Bressan, Luca Dall'Osto, Roberto Bassi & Matteo Ballottari

  2. Centre for Nano Science and Technology @PoliMi, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, via Pascoli 70/3, 20133 Milan, Italy

    Ilaria Bargigia, Marcelo J. P. Alcocer & Cosimo D'Andrea

  3. Department of Physics, IFN-CNR, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133 Milan, Italy

    Marcelo J. P. Alcocer, Daniele Viola, Giulio Cerullo & Cosimo D'Andrea

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  1. Mauro Bressan
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Contributions

M.Ba., L.D. and R.B. conceived the work and designed the experiments. M.Br. and L.D. performed all the experiments for the isolation of the ΔLhca mutant, its physiological and biochemical characterization and purification of PSI complexes. M.Ba. performed all the experiments for the spectroscopic characterization of PSI complexes. C.D. and G.C. coordinated the time-resolved fluorescence analysis experiments. I.B., M.J.P.A. and C.D. contributed to the time-resolved fluorescence analysis experiments. I.B., M.J.P.A., D.V., G.C., M.Ba. and C.D. analysed the fluorescence decay results by global analysis. All of the authors contributed to writing the manuscript. All of the authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Roberto Bassi.

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Supplementary Tables 1–5, Supplementary Figs 1–11 and Supplementary References. (PDF 1849 kb)

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Bressan, M., Dall'Osto, L., Bargigia, I. et al. LHCII can substitute for LHCI as an antenna for photosystem I but with reduced light-harvesting capacity. Nature Plants 2, 16131 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2016.131

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