Hydrogen peroxide as an alternate substrate for the oxygen-evolving complex.

Photosystem II reaction centers evolve O2 in the dark when H2O2 is added as a substrate. Although some of this activity can be attributed to catalase, as much as 75% of the activity was not affected by the addition of 1 mM KCN. Several lines of evidence demonstrate that this KCN-insensitive O2 evolution from H2O2 in the dark is catalyzed by the cycling of S states in the oxygen-evolving complex including: inactivation of H2O2-mediated O2 evolution by Ca/EDTA washing; susceptibility of the activity to inhibition by amines like ammonia and Tris; inhibition by CCCP which is known to accelerate the rate of deactivation of the S2 state and; a direct dependence of the rate of O2 evolution on the presence of calcium and chloride.