Resonance Raman
Spectroscopy of
Xanthophylls in Pigment
Mutant Thylakoid Membranes
of Pea
Atanaska Andreeva
1
Katerina Stoitchkova
1
Mira Busheva
2
Emilia Apostolova
2
Zsuzsanna Va ´ rkonyi
3
Gyo ¨ zo ¨ Garab
3
1
Sofia University,
Faculty of Physics,
Department of Condensed
Matter Physics, 5,
J Bourchier Blvd.,
1164 Sofia, Bulgaria
2
Institute of Biophysics,
Bulgarian Academy of
Sciences,
Acad. G. Bonchev str. bl.21,
1113 Sofia, Bulgaria
3
Institute of Plant Biology,
Biological Research Center,
Hungarian Academy of
Sciences,
Szeged, P. O.Box 521,
H-6701 Hungary
Received 1 September 2003;
accepted 27 October 2003
Published online 7 April 2004 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com).
DOI 10.1002/bip.20050
Abstract: Low-temperature resonance Raman spectroscopy was used to study the changes in the
molecular structure and configuration of the major xanthophylls in thylakoid membranes isolated
from mutants of pea with modified pigment content and altered structural organization of their
pigment–protein complexes. The Raman spectra contained four known groups of bands,
1
–
4
,
which could be assigned to originate mainly from the long wavelength absorbing lutein and
neoxanthin upon 514.5 nm and at 488 nm excitations, respectively. The overall configuration of
these bound xanthophyll molecules in the mutants appeared to be similar to the wild type, and the
configuration in the wild type was almost identical with that in the isolated main chlorophyll a/b
light harvesting protein complex of photosystem II (LHCII). Significant differences were found
mainly in the region of
4
(around 960 cm
-1
), which suggest that the macroorganization of PS
II–LHCII supercomplexes and/or of the LHCII-only domains are modified in the mutants compared
to the wild type. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Biopolymers 74: 87–91, 2004
Keywords: resonance Raman spectroscopy; xanthophylls; thylakoid membranes; pigment mu-
tants; light harvesting complex photosystem II
Correspondence to: Atanaska Andreeva; e-mail: andreeva@
phys.uni-sofia.bg
Biopolymers, Vol. 74, 87–91 (2004)
© 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
87