Title
Involvement of the Lhcx protein Fcp6 of the diatom Cyclotella meneghiniana in the macro-organization and structural flexibility of thylakoid membranes
Author
Artur Ghazaryan, Parveen Akhtar, Győző Garab, Petar H. Lambrev, Claudia Büchel
Year
2016
Journal
Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Bioenergetics
Abstract
Diatoms possess special light-harvesting proteins involved in the photoprotection mechanism called non-photochemical quenching (NPQ). These Lhcx proteins were shown to be subunits of trimeric fucoxanthin-chlorophyll complexes (FCPa) in centric diatoms, but their mode of action is still unclear. Here we investigated the influence of Fcp6, an orthologue to Lhcx1 of Thalassiosira pseudonana in the diatom Cyclotella meneghiniana, by reducing its amount using an antisense approach. Whereas the pigment interactions inside FCPa were not influenced by the presence or absence of Fcp6, as demonstrated by unaltered spectra of circular dichroism, changes could be observed on the level of thylakoids and cells in the mutants compared to WT. This fits to recent models of NPQ in diatoms, where FCP aggregation or supramolecular reorganisation is thought to be a major feature. Thus, Fcp6 (Lhcx1) appears to alter pigment–pigment interactions inside the aggregates, but not inside (un-aggregated) FCPa itself.
Instrument
J-815
Keywords
Circular dichroism, Biochemistry