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The hidden machinery of a photosynthetic giant revealed

Date:
March 18, 2021
Source:
Ruhr-University Bochum
Summary:
Photosynthesis is the fundament of almost all live on earth, and yet it is not understood down to the last detail. An international research team has now unraveled one of its secrets. The researchers have successfully isolated a rare manifestation of photosystem I and studied it in detail. The study provided new insights into the transport of light-energy in this giant photosynthetic protein complex.
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Photosynthesis represents the only biological process, which converts the energy of sunlight into chemically stored energy. On molecular level, the photosynthetic key enzymes called photosystems are responsible for this conversion process. Photosystem I (PSI), one of the two photosystems, is a large membrane protein complex that can be present in different forms -- as monomers, dimers, trimers or even tetramers. New isolation technique helps revealing the structure of monomeric PSI

Although the structure of trimeric PSI from the thermophilic cyanobacterium Thermosynechococcus elongatus was solved 20 years ago, it was not yet possible to obtain the corresponding structure of monomeric PSI. Major bottleneck was the low natural abundance of this specific PSI form. Therefore, a new extraction method was developed by the researchers at RUB, which enabled selective isolation of PSI monomers with high yield. The isolated protein complex was characterized in detail at RUB by mass-spectrometry, spectroscopy and biochemical methods, whereas the research team at Osaka University was able to solve its structure by cryo-electron microscopy. Teamwork between chlorophylls and lipids might enable uphill energy transfer

The atomic structure of monomeric PSI provides novel insights into the energy transfer inside the protein complex as well as on the localization of so-called red chlorophylls -- specially arranged chlorophylls, closely interacting with each other and thus enabling the absorption of low-energy far red light, which normally cannot be used for photosynthesis. Interestingly, the structure revealed that the red chlorophylls seem to interact with lipids of the surrounding membrane. This structural arrangement might indicate that additional thermal energy is used to make far red light accessible for photosynthesis. Long-run cooperation bears further fruits


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Materials provided by Ruhr-University Bochum. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Orkun Çoruh, Anna Frank, Hideaki Tanaka, Akihiro Kawamoto, Eithar El-Mohsnawy, Takayuki Kato, Keiichi Namba, Christoph Gerle, Marc M. Nowaczyk, Genji Kurisu. Cryo-EM structure of a functional monomeric Photosystem I from Thermosynechococcus elongatus reveals red chlorophyll cluster. Communications Biology, 2021; 4 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s42003-021-01808-9

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Ruhr-University Bochum. "The hidden machinery of a photosynthetic giant revealed." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 18 March 2021. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210318111430.htm>.
Ruhr-University Bochum. (2021, March 18). The hidden machinery of a photosynthetic giant revealed. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 28, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210318111430.htm
Ruhr-University Bochum. "The hidden machinery of a photosynthetic giant revealed." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210318111430.htm (accessed March 28, 2024).

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