Open AccessHarvesting Far-Red Light with Plant Antenna Complexes Incorporating Chlorophyll d
Author(s) -
Eduard Elias,
Nicoletta Liguori,
Yoshitaka Saga,
Judith Schäfers,
Roberta Croce
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
biomacromolecules
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.689
H-Index - 220
eISSN - 1526-4602
pISSN - 1525-7797
DOI - 10.1021/acs.biomac.1c00435
Subject(s) - light harvesting complex , photosynthesis , absorption (acoustics) , far red , biophysics , antenna (radio) , chemistry , chlorophyll , botany , biology , photosystem ii , biochemistry , physics , optics , red light , computer science , telecommunications
Increasing the absorption cross section of plants by introducing far-red absorbing chlorophylls (Chls) has been proposed as a strategy to boost crop yields. To make this strategy effective, these Chls should bind to the photosynthetic complexes without altering their functional architecture. To investigate if plant-specific antenna complexes can provide the protein scaffold to accommodate these Chls, we have reconstituted the main light-harvesting complex (LHC) of plants LHCII in vitro and in silico , with Chl d . The results demonstrate that LHCII can bind Chl d in a number of binding sites, shifting the maximum absorption ∼25 nm toward the red with respect to the wild-type complex (LHCII with Chl a and b ) while maintaining the native LHC architecture. Ultrafast spectroscopic measurements show that the complex is functional in light harvesting and excitation energy transfer. Overall, we here demonstrate that it is possible to obtain plant LHCs with enhanced far-red absorption and intact functional properties.