Light-induced electrogenic events associated with proton uptake upon forming QB- in bacterial wild-type and mutant reaction centers.

Light-induced voltage changes (electrogenic events) were measured in wild-type and site-directed mutants of reaction centers (RCs) from Rhodobacter sphaeroides oriented in a lipid monolayer adsorbed to a Teflon film. A rapid increase in voltage associated with charge separation was followed by a slower increase attributed to proton transfer from solution to protonatable amino-acid residues in the vicinity of the QB site. In native reaction centers the proton-transfer voltage had a pH-dependent amplitude with two peaks at pH 4.5 and pH 9.7, respectively. In the Glu-L212-->Gln RCs the high-pH peak was absent, whereas in the Asp-L213-->Asn RCs the low-pH peak was absent and the high-pH peak was shifted to lower pH by about 1.3 pH units. The amplitudes of the electrogenic phases as a function of pH follow approximately the measured proton uptake from solution (P.H. McPherson, M.Y. Okamura, G. Feher, Biochim. Biophys. Acta, vol. 934, 1988, pp. 348-368) and are ascribed to proton transfer to amino acid residues upon QB- formation. The peak around pH 9.7 is ascribed to proton uptake predominantly by Glu-L212 and the peak around pH 4.5 to proton uptake predominantly by Asp-L213 or a residue strongly interacting with Asp-L213.