[Structural-functional characteristics of photosynthetic reaction centers extracted by treatment with lauryldimethylamine oxide from Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides (wild type)].

A method for isolation of photoactive reaction centers from Rps. sphaeroides (wild type) chromatophores, using lauryldimethylamine oxide (LDAO) as detergent, is described. The preparation obtained is free of a light-harvesting pigment-protein complex and cytochromes. A high degree of purity can be demonstrated from the adsorption indexes of the preparation equal to A280 : A800 = 1.2--1.3; A760 : A800 : A870 = 1 : 2 : 0.9. Data from polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis suggest that the integral protein component of the preparation is made up of three polypeptides with molecular weights of 30 000, 24 000 and 20 000. Under continuous illumination the preparation exhibits an effective electron transfer from the bacteriochlorophyll dimer (BChl)2 to a system of quinone acceptors (X1, X2). The ambient potential Em of (BChl)2 half-recovery was estimated as + 475 mV and pH 7.2. The rate constant for direct electron transfer from X1- to X2 is about 0.5 . 10(3) s-1 at 300 degrees K (0.01 M phosphate buffer; 0.05% LDAO, pH 7.2). The activity of this transfer is exponentially reduced with a decrease in temperature within the range of 300 to 230 degrees K, with an activation energy, Ea, of approximately equal to 8 kcal. The recombination rate constant of light-induced ion-radicals, (BChl)2+ and X1-, was found to be 5 . 10(-2) s-1 at 180 degrees K. The preparations thus obtained can be used for studying mechanisms of primary events in photosynthesis and electron-exchange conformations in the reaction center.