The PsbS protein controls the organization of the photosystem II antenna in higher plant thylakoid membranes.

The PsbS subunit of photosystem II (PSII) plays a key role in nonphotochemical quenching (NPQ), the major photoprotective regulatory mechanism in higher plant thylakoid membranes, but its mechanism of action is unknown. Here we describe direct evidence that PsbS controls the organization of PSII and its light harvesting system (LHCII). The changes in chlorophyll fluorescence amplitude associated with the Mg(2+)-dependent restacking of thylakoid membranes were measured in thylakoids prepared from wild-type plants, a PsbS-deficient mutant and a PsbS overexpresser. The Mg(2+) requirement and sigmoidicity of the titration curves for the fluorescence rise were negatively correlated with the level of PsbS. Using a range of PsbS mutants, this effect of PsbS was shown not to depend upon its efficacy in controlling NPQ, but to be related only to protein concentration. Electron microscopy and fluorescence spectroscopy showed that this effect was because of enhancement of the Mg(2+)-dependent re-association of PSII and LHCII by PsbS, rather than an effect on stacking per se. In the presence of PsbS the LHCII.PSII complex was also more readily removed from thylakoid membranes by detergent, and the level of PsbS protein correlated with the amplitude of the psi-type CD signal originating from features of LHCII.PSII organization. It is proposed that PsbS regulates the interaction between LHCII and PSII in the grana membranes, explaining how it acts as a pH-dependent trigger of the conformational changes within the PSII light harvesting system that result in NPQ.