Time-resolved optical measurements encompassing the femtoseconds to seconds time scales have been used to investigate Rhodobacter capsulatus reaction centers (RCs) in which the histidine residue at position 200 on the M polypeptide has been changed to a leucine by site-directed mutagenesis. TheHisM'' --) Leu RC, which has a heterodimer consisting of a bacteriochlorophyll and a bacteriopheophytin, is capable of the primary photochemistry observed in wild-type Rb. capsulatus RCs, but with an overall quantum yield reduced by about half. The lower yield resides in the initial electron transfer reaction and may be associated in part with substantial charge transfer character of the excited heterodimer. These and other comparisons between Rb. capsulatus wild-type and HisM2 -Leu RCs have important implications for our understanding of the mechanism of electron transfer in the RC and the efficiency of the charge separation process.
MATERIALS AND METHODSIsolation of Rb. capsulatus wild-type and HiSM21 --Leu RCs followed described procedures (6, 7). The results of measurements performed on two different preparations of HiSM21 -+ Leu mutant RCs agreed within experimental error. The same is true of the measurements on wild-type Rb. capsulatus RCs. For both the mutant and wild-type RCs, a small portion of each preparation was extracted into acetone/methanol (7:2) and the pigment content was assayed via the Qy absorption bands of the extracted chromophores.The procedure closely followed that originally used for analysis ofRhodospirillum rubrum RCs (8). Determination of the total number of pigments per RC requires knowledge of the absolute extinction coefficient of some band in the RC spectrum. Since extinction coefficients have not been determined for Rb. capsulatus, we used the Rb. sphaeroides extinction coefficient at 802 nm of 288 mM -1 cm-l (9) for both wild-type and mutant RCs. The pigment ratio, on the other hand, is solely based on the near-infrared extinction coefficients of BChl and BPh in acetone/methanol (7:2), numbers that are given in ref. 8.Transient absorption spectra and kinetics were recorded on a spectrometer that utilizes 350-fs flashes. The optical pulses are generated with off-the-shelf laser equipment (Spectra Physics, Santa Clara, CA) and the vidicon-based detection system (PAR) is similar to that used on a picosecond spectrometer previously described (10). (Further details of the femtosecond apparatus will be given elsewhere.) The 350-fs 582-nm excitation flashes were attenuated so that 25-40% of the long-wavelength dimer band was bleached. RCs in 10 mM potassium phosphate buffer, pH 7.3/0.05% lauryldimethylamine-N-oxide (LDAO)/0.2 mM sodium ascorbate, were flowed through either a 2-or a 4-mm pathlength cell and maintained at 100C. Measurements on the microseconds/ milliseconds time scale were performed on an apparatus with 10-ns flashes (11), using static samples held in a 1-cm cuvette at room temperature. No degradation of RCs during the measurements was observed, as judged by ground-stat...