Herbicides that target photosystem II (PSII) compete with the native electron acceptor plastoquinone for binding at the QB site in the D1 subunit and thus block the electron transfer from QA to QB. Here, we present the first crystal structure of PSII with a bound herbicide at a resolution of 3.2 Å. The crystallized PSII core complexes were isolated from the thermophilic cyanobacterium Thermosynechococcus elongatus. The used herbicide terbutryn is found to bind via at least two hydrogen bonds to the QB site similar to photosynthetic reaction centers in anoxygenic purple bacteria. Herbicide binding to PSII is also discussed regarding the influence on the redox potential of QA, which is known to affect photoinhibition. We further identified a second and novel chloride position close to the water-oxidizing complex and in the vicinity of the chloride ion reported earlier (Guskov, A., Kern, J., Gabdulkhakov, A., Broser, M., Zouni, A., and Saenger, W. (2009) Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol. 16, 334–342). This discovery is discussed in the context of proton transfer to the lumen.
Conformational control of cofactors in nature—functional tetrapyrrole conformations in the photosynthetic reaction centers of purple bacteria
