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    Home > Biochemistry News > Biotechnology News > Nature Communications: Peking University researchers reveal the structural basis of light energy transmission in cyanobacterial phycobilisomes

    Nature Communications: Peking University researchers reveal the structural basis of light energy transmission in cyanobacterial phycobilisomes

    • Last Update: 2021-09-30
    • Source: Internet
    • Author: User
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    On September 17, 2021, the research group of Academician Zhao Jindong of Peking University and the research group of Professor Gao Ning published a research paper entitled "Structural Insight into the Mechanism of Energy Transfer in Cyanobacterial Phycobilisomes" in Nature Communications
    .
    The paper uses cryo-electron microscopy to analyze the high-resolution structures of two cyanobacteria phycobilisomes (Phycobilisomes, PBS) for the first time, and combined with biochemical experiments, it is the first to prove that the aromatic amino acids on the PBS subunits directly participate in the excitation energy transfer (excitation energy transfer).


    , EET)


    Photosynthesis is one of the most important reactions on earth, converting light energy into chemical energy
    .
    The initiation of photosynthesis is the absorption and transmission of light energy.


    This process is usually completed by the light-harvesting antenna complex of photosynthetic organisms


    Figure 1 Schematic diagram of two cyanobacteria phycobilisome complexes

    The energy absorbed by the phycobilisomes is transferred through the bilin and finally collected on ApcE and ApcD.
    ApcE and ApcD are the terminal emitters from EET to optical system II and optical system I, respectively


    .


    Figure 2 Key amino acids in the energy transfer process of cyanobacterial phycobilisomes

    More importantly, within the cyanobacteria, phycobilisomes are arranged in order on the thylakoid membrane to form a huge PBS array
    .
    By fitting the PBS structure obtained in this study to the low-resolution PBS array structure (Rast et al.


    , 2019)The authors found that the pigment clusters between adjacent phycobilisomes are very close, suggesting that there may be light energy transfer between phycobilisomes


    Figure 3 Distribution of cyanobacteria phycobilisome thylakoid membrane and light energy transmission

    In summary, this study analyzed the high-resolution structures of two broadly representative phycobilisomes in cyanobacteria for the first time, and proved the role of aromatic amino acids and connexins in EET for the first time
    .
    These data provide key information for understanding the energy transfer of photosynthesis, and also provide potential clues for the artificial synthesis of light-harvesting antenna complexes in the future


    .


    Academician Zhao Jindong and Professor Gao Ning of the School of Life Sciences, Peking University are the co-corresponding authors of this article
    .
    Zheng Lvqin, a doctoral student in the Gaoning group, and Zheng Zhenggao and Li Xiying, a postdoctoral fellow in the Zhao Jindong group, are the co-first authors of this article


    .


    ? Article link: https://

    references:

    Rast, A.


                                     

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