Isolation of a photoactive photosynthetic reaction center-core antenna complex from Heliobacillus mobilis

A photoactive reaction center-core antenna complex was isolated from the photosynthetic bacterium Heliobacillus mobilis by extraction of membranes with Deriphat 160c followed by differential centrifugation and sucrose density gradient ultracentrifugation. The purified complex contained a Mr 47,000 polypeptide(s) that bound both the primary donor (P800) and approximately 24 antenna bacteriochlorophylls g. Time-resolved fluorescence emission spectroscopy indicated that the antenna bacteriochlorophylls g are active in energy transfer to P800, exhibiting a decay time of 25 ps. The complex contained 1.4 menaquinones, 9 Fe, and 3 labile S2- per P800. The complex was photoactive with an exponential decay time of 14 ms for P800+ yet showed no EPR-detectable Fe-S center signal in the g less than or equal to 2.0 region, either by chemical reduction to -600 mV or by illumination of reduced samples. The complex is similar to photosystem I of oxygen-evolving photosynthetic systems in that both the primary donor and a core antenna are bound to the same pigment-protein complex.