A supermolecular basis for efficient photoenergy absorption, transmission and conversion of photosynthesis rose bacteria.

On April 19th, Sun Fei, Institute of Biophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Xu Xiaoling and Xin Yueyong of Hangzhou Normal University published the results of the study entitled Cryo-EM of the RC-LH core project from the research of the journal Nature Communications.
this work reported on the high-resolution electroscopic structure of a core photosynthesis complex formed by the photosynthesis center and the photonic antenna in the photosynthesis of photosynthesis rose bacteria, and revealed the supermolecular basis for the high-efficiency photoenergy absorption, transmission and conversion of the photosynthesis.
photosynthesis is the most important process of photosynthesis on Earth, providing the material and energy base for the existence and reproduction of life in the biosphere, while maintaining the Earth's atmospheric environment and elemental cycle. The in-depth study of photosynthesis mechanism in
is not only of great theoretical significance, but also of guiding significance to the application and research based on its principle.
photosynthesis originated from bacteria, after hundreds of millions of years of evolution, in the premise of maintaining efficiency, through the relevant genes in various types of photosynthesis between the "crossing", photosynthesis organisms from the pronuclear photosynthesis bacteria expansion to eukaryoyoyoyonic algae and plants, showing a variety of diversity.
photosynthesis occurs on photosynthesis membranes distributed by a variety of supermolecular complexes.
a wide variety of pigment molecules contained in the light-capture antenna, which transmit energy through kinetic or dipole resonance effects after capturing light energy.
when the excitation energy is absorbed by the special bacteria chlorophyll at the reaction center, the primary charge separation reaction occurs, and the light energy is first converted into potential energy.
after a series of electron transfers and proton transfers, potential energy is eventually converted into chemical energy that can be used and stored by organisms.
heat-obsessed photosynthesis is a kind of photosynthesis bacteria adapted to special habitat, and its photosynthesis system has a unique and efficient energy transfer and charge transfer mechanism and perfect self-protection mechanism.
biological evolutionary analysis suggests that its evolutionary status is closer to the common ancestor of all photosynthesis organisms, so it is considered an ideal species for studying photosynthesis mechanisms, origins and evolution, and the development and utilization of new energy sources.
special feature of its photosynthesis system is that its peripheral light-capture antenna is similar to a green bacterium, and the inner antenna and reaction center belong to the same evolutionary branch as the purple bacteria.
at the same time, its light-capture antenna is the chimeric light-capture antenna LH, which integrates the light absorption characteristics of LH2 and LH1 in the purple bacteria, and assembles with the reaction center to form a supermolecular complex, allowing it to efficiently capture light energy and complete energy conversion in low-light conditions.
the analysis of the complete structure of the complex is of great scientific significance for people to understand its internal sub-base composition and arrangement mode, pigment binding position and mutual orientation and distance.
the study used the frozen electro-mirror single particle technology to analyze the three-dimensional structure of the photosynthesis rose bacteria core photosynthesis complex RC-LH, with a resolution of 4.1 E.
the structure is also the first high-resolution 3D structure of the heat-loving green-fibacteria RC-LH complex.
it consists of a reaction center consisting of L, M, and cytochrome c sub-sub-cells, an elliptical catch-up antenna ring formed around the outer circumlose of the reaction center by 15 pairs of LH alpha beta subkeys, and 48 bacterial chlorophyll molecules in the complex, three demagnesium-demagnesium bacteria chlorophyll molecules, 14 gamma carotenoid molecules and other cofactors.
the study shows the mode and mechanism of interaction between the sub-sub-sub-pairs of the capture antenna and their reaction center, and through an in-depth analysis of the highly complex pigment network within the complex, the possible path of energy and electron transmission within the complex is revealed;
the above results will effectively promote the study of molecular mechanisms in the process of light energy conversion.
the work was completed by Sun Fei's team in cooperation with Xu Xiaoling and Xin Yueyong.
Sun Fei and Xu Xiaoling are the co-authors of the paper, Xin Yueyong and Sun Fei's team leader Yang (doctoral students), Niu Weixin (master's graduate student) are the co-first authors of the thesis.
the research was supported by projects such as the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Zhejiang Natural Science Foundation.
data collection and sample analysis have received strong support and assistance from relevant staff (Ding Xiang, etc.) of the Bioimaging Center of the Biophysics Institute (Yang Xiaojun, Ding Wei), the Biophysics Institute's Protein Science Research Platform, etc.
.