Far-red light absorption strategies and their structural basis in Photosystem I of Acaryochloris marina NIES-2412

The marine cyanobacterium, Acaryochloris marina , uses the red-shifted chlorophyll d as its primary pigment, allowing it to absorb photons >700 nm. However, the widely studied type strain, A. marina MBIC11017, is atypical compared to most cyanobacteria, due to the absence of low energy chlorophylls (‘red forms’) within its Photosystem I complex. Consequently, Photosystem I and Photosystem II in the MBIC11017 strain share similar absorption spectra and are incapable of absorbing photons >740 nm. Recently, it has been discovered that the absorption and emission spectra from other A. marina strains are significantly more red-shifted than the MBIC11017 strain.

Here, we have combined advanced spectroscopy and high-resolution cryo-EM to characterize Photosystem I from Acaryochloris marina NIES-2412, a red-shifted strain that is more representative of the A. marina species. The structure resolves all 96 chlorophylls and cofactors and indicates the location of the red chlorophyll forms. Spectroscopic analysis reveals two distinct types of red forms: one arising from the classical mechanism of charge transfer–exciton mixing, and the other from purely excitonic interactions. Furthermore, we have identified PsaX2 as a critical subunit that fine-tunes the pigment geometries and energies to enable the formation of these red forms.

Together, these findings reveal how NIES-2412 PSI balances far-red light harvesting and energy trapping, highlighting its distinct strategy for adaptation in far-red light environments and redefining A. marina MBIC11017 as an atypical representative of the species.