Coordination Chemistry of Chlorophylls: Which Side of the Chlorin Macrocycle is Favored for the Ligand Coordination\ulcorner

Since chlorophyll a and bacteriochlorophyll a are asymmetric molecules, an external ligand can coordinate to the central Mg atom either from the chiorin macrocycle side where the C13$^2$-methoxycarbonyl moiety protrudes (denoting as the 'back' side) or frome the other side (the 'face' side). We investigated which side of the macrocycle is favored for the ligand coordination, by survey of the highly resolved crystal structures of various photosynthetic proteins and theoretical model calculations. It is found that chlorophyll a as well as bacteriochlorophyll a and b in the photosynthetic proteins mostly bind their ligands on the 'back' sides. This finding was confirmed by the theoretical calculations for methyl chlorophyllide a and methyl bacteriochlorophyllide a as models: the 'back' type ligand-(bacterio )chlorophyll complex was more stable than the 'face' type one. The calculations predicted influence of the Cl3$^2$-stereochemistry on the choice of the side of the ligand coordination, which is discussed in relation to the presence of the Cl3$^2$-epimer of chlorophyll a in photosystem I reaction center [I].