18O labeling of chlorophyll d in Acaryochloris marina reveals that chlorophyll a and molecular oxygen are precursors

Abstract

The cyanobacterium Acaryochloris marina was cultured in the presence of either H218O or 18O2, and the newly synthesized chlorophylls (Chl a and Chl d) were isolated using high performance liquid chromatography and analyzed by mass spectroscopy. In the presence of H218O, newly synthesized Chl a and d, both incorporated up to four isotopic 18O atoms. Time course H218O labeling experiments showed incorporation of isotopic 18O atoms originating from H218O into Chl a, with over 90% of Chl a 18O-labeled at 48 h. The incorporation of isotopic 18O atoms into Chl d upon incubation in H218O was slower compared with Chl a with ∼50% 18O-labeled Chl d at 115 h. The rapid turnover of newly synthesized Chl a suggested that Chl a is the direct biosynthetic precursor of Chl d. In the presence of 18O2 gas, one isotopic 18O atom was incorporated into Chl a with approximately the same kinetic incorporation rate observed in the H 218O labeling experiment, reaching over 90% labeling intensity at 48 h. The incorporation of two isotopic 18O atoms derived from molecular oxygen (18O2) was observed in the extracted Chl d, and the percentage of double isotopic 18O-labeled Chl d increased in parallel with the decrease of non-isotopic-labeled Chl d. This clearly indicated that the oxygen atom in the C31-formyl group of Chl d is derived from dioxygen via an oxygenase-type reaction mechanism. © 2010 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.