Interaction of photosystem I from Phaeodactylum tricornutum with plastocyanins as compared with its native cytochrome c6: Reunion with a lost donor

•The reduction of a diatom alga PSI by plastocyanins is investigated.•PSI reacts less efficiently with plastocyanins than with the diatom cytochrome c6.•Reactivity increases in a green alga plastocyanin mutants.•The cytochrome c6(plastocyanin)/PSI complex structures have been analyzed.

In the Phaeodactylum tricornutum alga, as in most diatoms, cytochrome c6 is the only electron donor to photosystem I, and thus they lack plastocyanin as an alternative electron carrier. We have investigated, by using laser-flash absorption spectroscopy, the electron transfer to Phaeodactylum photosystem I from plastocyanins from cyanobacteria, green algae and plants, as compared with its own cytochrome c6. Diatom photosystem I is able to effectively react with eukaryotic acidic plastocyanins, although with less efficiency than with Phaeodactylum cytochrome c6. This efficiency, however, increases in some green alga plastocyanin mutants mimicking the electrostatics of the interaction site on the diatom cytochrome. In addition, the structure of the transient electron transfer complex between cytochrome c6 and photosystem I from Phaeodactylum has been analyzed by computational docking and compared to that of green lineage and mixed systems. Taking together, the results explain why the Phaeodactylum system shows a lower efficiency than the green systems, both in the formation of the properly arranged [cytochrome c6-photosystem I] complex and in the electron transfer itself.

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