Membrane lipid unsaturation modulates processing of the photosystem II reaction-center protein D1 at low temperatures

The role of membrane lipid unsaturation in the restoration of photosystem II (PSII) function and in the synthesis of the D1 protein at different temperatures after photoinhibition was studied in wildtype cells and a mutant of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 with genetically inactivated desaturase genes. We show that posttranslational carboxyl-terminal processing of the precursor form of the D1 protein is an extremely sensitive reaction in the PSII repair cycle and is readily affected by low temperature. Furthermore, the threshold temperature at which perturbations in D1-protein processing start to emerge is specifically dependent on the extent of thylakoid membrane lipid unsaturation, as indicated by comparison of wildtype cells with the mutant defective in desaturation of 18:1 fatty acids of thylakoid membranes. When the temperature was decreased from 33 degrees C (growth temperature) to 18 degrees C, the inability of the fatty acid mutant to recover from photoinhibition was accompanied by a failure to process the newly synthesized D1 protein, which accumulated in considerable amounts as an unprocessed precursor D1 protein. Precursor D1 integrated into PSII monomer and dimer complexes even at low temperatures, but no activation of oxygen evolution occurred in these complexes in mutant cells defective in fatty acid unsaturation.