In photosynthetic reaction centers, the free energy difference for electron transfer between quinones bound at the primary and secondary quinone-binding sites governs the observed secondary site specificity.

The secondary quinone-binding site (QB site) of bacterial reaction centers from Rhodobacter sphaeroides is generally regarded to be highly specific for its native ubiquinone-10 molecule. We demonstrate here that this is a misconception rooted in the kinetic methods used to assay for occupancy of a quinone in the QB site. We show that observance of occupancy of the QB site, revealed by kinetic assay, is sensitive to the free-energy difference for electron transfer between the quinone at the primary quinone-binding site (QA site) and the QB site (-delta G0e-). For many of the compounds previously tested for binding at the QB site, the -delta G0e- between QA and QB is too small to permit detection of the functional quinone in the QB site. With an increased -delta G0e- achieved by replacing the native ubiquinone-10 at the QA site with lower-potential quinones or by testing higher-potential QB candidates, it is shown that the QB site binds and functions with the unsubstituted 1,4-benzoquinone, 1,4-naphthoquinone, and 9,10-phenanthraquinone, as well as with their various substituted forms. Moreover, quinones with the ortho-carbonyl configuration appear to function in a similar manner to quinones with the para-carbonyl configuration.