Oxidation state changes of the Mn4Ca cluster in photosystem II

A detailed electronic structure of the Mn4Ca cluster is required before two key questions for understanding the mechanism of photosynthetic water oxidation can be addressed. They are whether all four oxidizing equivalents necessary to oxidize water to O2 accumulate on the four Mn ions of the oxygen-evolving complex, or do some ligand-centered oxidations take place before the formation and release of O2 during the S3 --> [S4] --> S0 transition, and what are the oxidation state assignments for the Mn during S-state advancement. X-ray absorption and emission spectroscopy of Mn, including the newly introduced resonant inelastic X-ray scattering spectroscopy have been used to address these questions. The present state of understanding of the electronic structure and oxidation state changes of the Mn4Ca cluster in all the S-states, particularly in the S2 to S3 transition, derived from these techniques is described in this review.