Herbicide binding in the bacterial photosynthetic reaction center.

The ureas and phenolics are two major classes of herbicides that act on Photosystem II (PSII) and are normally inactive in the photosynthetic reaction centers of purple bacteria. However, the triazine-resistant mutant T4 from Rhodopseudomonas (Rps.) viridis, which has the tyrosine residue at position 222 on the L subunit substituted for phenylalanine (TyrL222Phe), is sensitive to both ureas and phenolics. Since for the first time structural data on urea binding are available, T4 is a particularly interesting model for the herbicide-binding site of PSII.