Isolation and biochemical characterisation of monomeric and dimeric photosystem II complexes from spinach and their relevance to the organisation of photosystem II in vivo

Membranes enriched in photosystem II were isolated from spinach and further solubilised using n-octyl beta-D-glucopyranoside (OctGlc) and n-dodecyl beta-D-maltoside (DodGlc(2)). The OctGlc preparation had high rates of oxygen evolution and when subjected to size-exclusion HPLC and sucrose density gradient centrifugation, in the presence of DodGlc(2), separated into dimeric (430 kDa), monomeric (236 kDa) photosystem II cores and a fraction containing photosystem II light-harvesting complex (Lhcb) proteins. The dimeric core fraction was more stable, contained higher levels of chlorophyll, beta-carotene and plastoquinone per photosystem II reaction centre and had a higher oxygen-evolving activity than the monomeric cores. Their subunit composition was similar (CP43, CP47, D1, D2, cytochrome b 559 and several lower-molecular-mass components) except that the level of 33-kDa extrinsic protein was lower in the monomeric fraction. Direct solubilisation of photosystem-II-enriched membranes with DodGlc(2), followed by sucrose density gradient centrifugation, yielded a super complex (700 kDa) containing the dimeric form of the photosystem II core and Lhcb proteins: Lhcb1, Lhcb2, Lhcb4 (CP29), and Lhcb5 (CP26). Like the dimeric and monomeric photosystem II core complexes, the photosystem II-LHCII complex had lost the 23-kDa and 17-kDa extrinsic proteins, but maintained the 33-kDa protein and the ability to evolve oxygen. It is suggested, with a proposed model, that the isolated photosystem II-LHCII super complex represents an in vivo organisation that can sometimes form a lattice in granal membranes of the type detected by freeze-etch electron microscopy [Seibert, M., DeWit, M. & Staehelin, L. A. (1987) J. Cell Biol. 105, 2257-2265].