Universal Existence of One Chlorophyll a' Molecule in Photosystem I of Oxygenic Photosynthetic Organisms

Chlorophyll (ChI) a' is the Cl3$^2$-epimer of ChI a which is the constituent of P700, the primary electron donor of Photosystem (PS) I, of a thrmophilic cyanobacterium, Synechococcus elongatus, whose structure was recently determined by X-ray crystallography. To determine whether PS I of diverse oxygenic photosynthetic organisms universally contain one molecule of ChI a ’, pigment compositions of thylakoid membranes and PS I complexes isolated from cyanobacteria, green algae, red algae and higher plants were determined by reversed-phase HPLC. The results show that involvement of one ChI a'molecule in PS I is the universal feature for Chi a-based PS I of oxygenic photosynthetic organisms.