The PscD subunit in the homodimeric "type I" photosynthetic reaction center (RC) complex of the green sulfur bacterium Chlorobium tepidum was disrupted by insertional mutagenesis of its relevant pscD gene. This is the first report on the use of the direct mutagenic approach into the RC-related genes in green sulfur bacteria. The RC complex of C. tepidum is supposed to form a homodimer of two identical PscA subunits together with three other subunits: PscB (F A /F B -containing protein), PscC (cytochrome c z ), and PscD. PscD shows a relatively low but significant similarity in its amino acid sequence to PsaD in the photosystem I of plants and cyanobacteria. We studied the biochemical and spectroscopic properties of a mutant lacking PscD in order to elucidate its unknown function. 1) The RC complex isolated from the mutant cells showed no band corresponding to PscD on SDS-PAGE analysis. 2) The growth rate of the PscD-less mutant was slower than that of the wildtype cells at low light intensities. 3) Time-resolved fluorescence spectra at 77 K revealed prolonged decay times of the fluorescence from bacteriochlorophyll c on the antenna chlorosome and from bacteriochlorophyll a on the Fenna-Matthews-Olson antenna protein in the mutant cells. The loss of PscD led to a much slower energy transfer from the antenna pigments to the special pair bacteriochlorophyll a (P840). 4) The mutant strain exhibited slightly less activity of ferredoxin-mediated NADP ؉ photoreduction compared with that in the wild-type strain. The extent of suppression, however, was less significant than that reported in the PsaD-less mutants of cyanobacterial photosystem I. The evolutionary relationship between PscD and PsaD was also discussed based on a structural homology modeling of the former.Photosynthetic organisms convert light energy into electrochemical free energy by carrying out a series of light-driven electron transfer reactions. This process, which is fundamental for life, is mediated by reaction center (RC) 1 complexes. The RCs are primarily grouped into two types based on their terminal electron acceptors, type I (FeS-type) RCs and type II (quinone-type) RCs. Purple photosynthetic bacteria contain only type II RCs, which do not evolve oxygen, whereas oxygenic cyanobacteria and plants utilize both type I (photosystem I) and type II (photosystem II) RCs, which are connected in-line through the b 6 f complex. Green sulfur bacteria and heliobacteria have unique type I RCs, so-called "homodimeric" RCs, which are made of two identical core polypeptides.The "heterodimeric" type I and II RCs, which are found in all photosynthetic organisms other than green sulfur bacteria and heliobacteria, consist of a set of two partially different core polypeptides that produce a slightly asymmetric arrangement of cofactors. A three-dimensional structure of the heterodimeric RC was first obtained from the type II RC of the purple bacterium Blastochloris viridis in 1985 (1). Recently, those of photosystem I and II RCs from the thermophilic cyanobacterium Sy...