Crystal Structure of a Photosynthetic LH1-RC in Complex with Its Electron Donor HiPIP

Overview

Journal Nat Commun

Specialty Biology

Date 2021 Feb 18

PMID 33597527

Citations 9

Authors

Tomoaki Kawakami

Long-Jiang Yu

Tai Liang

Koudai Okazaki

Michael T Madigan

Yukihiro Kimura

Zheng-Yu Wang-Otomo

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Photosynthetic electron transfers occur through multiple components ranging from small soluble proteins to large integral membrane protein complexes. Co-crystallization of a bacterial photosynthetic electron transfer complex that employs weak hydrophobic interactions was achieved by using high-molar-ratio mixtures of a soluble donor protein (high-potential iron-sulfur protein, HiPIP) with a membrane-embedded acceptor protein (reaction center, RC) at acidic pH. The structure of the co-complex offers a snapshot of a transient bioenergetic event and revealed a molecular basis for thermodynamically unfavorable interprotein electron tunneling. HiPIP binds to the surface of the tetraheme cytochrome subunit in the light-harvesting (LH1) complex-associated RC in close proximity to the low-potential heme-1 group. The binding interface between the two proteins is primarily formed by uncharged residues and is characterized by hydrophobic features. This co-crystal structure provides a model for the detailed study of long-range trans-protein electron tunneling pathways in biological systems.

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