A proteoliposome-based system reveals how lipids control photosynthetic light harvesting

Integral membrane proteins are exposed to a complex and dynamic lipid environment modulated by nonbilayer lipids that can influence protein functions by lipid-protein interactions. The nonbilayer lipid monogalactosyldiacylglycerol (MGDG) is the most abundant lipid in plant photosynthetic thylakoid membranes, but its impact on the functionality of energy-converting membrane protein complexes is unknown. Here, we optimized a detergent-based reconstitution protocol to develop a proteoliposome technique that incorporates the major light-harvesting complex II (LHCII) into compositionally well-defined large unilamellar lipid bilayer vesicles to study the impact of MGDG on light harvesting by LHCII. Using steady-state fluorescence spectroscopy, CD spectroscopy, and time-correlated single-photon counting, we found that both chlorophyll fluorescence quantum yields and fluorescence lifetimes clearly indicate that the presence of MGDG in lipid bilayers switches LHCII from a light-harvesting to a more energy-quenching mode that dissipates harvested light into heat. It is hypothesized that in the in vitro system developed here, MGDG controls light harvesting of LHCII by modulating the hydrostatic lateral membrane pressure profile in the lipid bilayer sensed by LHCII-bound peripheral pigments.