A mass spectrometric analysis of the water-splitting reaction.

Earlier mass spectrometric measurements, in which oxygen evolution was measured following short saturating light flashes, indicated that with a time resolution of about 30 s no form of bound water and/or an oxidation product exists up to the redox state S3 of the oxygen evolving center (R. Radmer and O. Ollinger, 1986, FEBS Lett 195: 285-289; K.P. Bader, P. Thibault and G.H. Schmid, 1987, Biochim Biophys Acta 893: 564-571). In the present study, isotope exchange experiments with H2 (18)O were performed under different experimental conditions. We found: a) the isotope exchange pattern is virtually the same at both pH 6.0 and 7.8, although marked structural changes of the PS II donor side are inferred to take place within this pH-range (Renger G., Messinger J. and Wacker U., 1992, Research in Photosynthesis, II: 329-332); b) injection of H2 (18)O at about 0°C gives rise to mass ratios of the evolved oxygen which markedly deviate from the theoretically expected values of complete isotope scrambling; and c) rapid injection of H2 (18)O into samples with high population of S1 and S2 and subsequent illumination with three and two flashes, respectively, spaced by a dark time of only 1.5 ms lead to similar (18)O-labeling of the evolved oxygen. Based on the published data on the interaction with redox active amines, possible pathways of substrate exchange in the water oxidase are discussed.