The photosystem I reaction centre

1988 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 460-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.B Knaff
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanai Cardona

AbstractWhen and how oxygenic photosynthesis originated remains controversial. Wide uncertainties exist for the earliest detection of biogenic oxygen in the geochemical record or the origin of water oxidation in ancestral lineages of the phylum Cyanobacteria. A unique trait of oxygenic photosynthesis is that the process uses a Type I reaction centre with a heterodimeric core, also known as Photosystem I, made of two distinct but homologous subunits, PsaA and PsaB. In contrast, all other known Type I reaction centres in anoxygenic phototrophs have a homodimeric core. A compelling hypothesis for the evolution of a heterodimeric Type I reaction centre is that the gene duplication that allowed the divergence of PsaA and PsaB was an adaptation to incorporate photoprotective mechanisms against the formation of reactive oxygen species, therefore occurring after the origin of water oxidation to oxygen. Here I show, using sequence comparisons and Bayesian relaxed molecular clocks that this gene duplication event may have occurred in the early Archean more than 3.4 billion years ago, long before the most recent common ancestor of crown group Cyanobacteria and the Great Oxidation Event. If the origin of water oxidation predated this gene duplication event, then that would place primordial forms of oxygenic photosynthesis at a very early stage in the evolutionary history of life.


1982 ◽  
Vol 204 (3) ◽  
pp. 705-712 ◽  
Author(s):  
A C Stewart

1. Photosynthetic electron transport from water to lipophilic Photosystem II acceptors was stimulated 3-5-fold by high concentrations (greater than or equal to 1 M) of salts containing anions such as citrate, succinate and phosphate that are high in the Hofmeister series. 2. In trypsin-treated chloroplasts, K3Fe(CN)6 reduction insensitive to 3-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-1,1-dimethylurea was strongly stimulated by high concentrations of potassium citrate, but there was much less stimulation of 2,6-dichloroindophenol reduction in Tris-treated chloroplasts supplied with 1,5-diphenylcarbazide as artificial donor. The results suggest that the main site of action of citrate was the O2-evolving complex of Photosystem II. 3. Photosystem I partial reactions were also stimulated by intermediate concentrations of citrate (up to 2-fold stimulation by 0.6-0.8 M-citrate), but were inhibited at the highest concentrations. The observed stimulation may have been caused by stabilizaton of plastocyanin that was complexed with the Photosystem I reaction centre, 4. At 1 M, potassium citrate protected O2 evolution against denaturation by heat or by the chaotropic agent NaNO3. 5. It is suggested that anions high in the Hofmeister series stimulated and stabilized electron transport by enhancing water structure around the protein complexes in the thylakoid membrane.


1978 ◽  
Vol 170 (2) ◽  
pp. 373-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
P Heathcote ◽  
D L Williams-Smith ◽  
M C W Evans

An e.p.r. spectrum of the reduced form of the electron-transport component (X), thought to be the primary electron acceptor of Photosystem I, was obtained. By using line-shape simulations of this component and the free-radical e.p.r. signal I of the oxidized reaction-centre chlorophyll (P700), it was possible to determine the ratio of the number of electron spins to which these signals correspond in Photosystem-I particles under a variety of conditions. On illumination at cryogenic temperatures of Photosystem-I preparations, in which both bound iron-sulphur centres A and B were reduced, the measured ratio of free radical to component X varied between 1.04 and 2.23, with an average value of 1.54 +/- 0.18 where a Gaussian line-shape is assumed for the component-X signal in the simulation. The error in this measurement is estimated to be up to 50%. In a similar way component X and centre A of the bound iron-sulphur protein were quantified, the ratio between these two components varying between 1.26 and 0.61 with an average value of 0.75 +/- 0.06. These results indicate that the quantitative relationship, in terms of net electron spins, between centre A, component X and P700 is of the order to be expected if component X is indeed the primary electron acceptor in Photosystem I and a component of the photosynthetic electron-transport chain.


2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (172) ◽  
pp. 20200813
Author(s):  
D. Montepietra ◽  
M. Bellingeri ◽  
A. M. Ross ◽  
F. Scotognella ◽  
D. Cassi

In this paper, we model the excitation energy transfer (EET) of photosystem I (PSI) of the common pea plant Pisum sativum as a complex interacting network. The magnitude of the link energy transfer between nodes/chromophores is computed by Forster resonant energy transfer (FRET) using the pairwise physical distances between chromophores from the PDB 5L8R (Protein Data Bank). We measure the global PSI network EET efficiency adopting well-known network theory indicators: the network efficiency (Eff) and the largest connected component (LCC). We also account the number of connected nodes/chromophores to P700 (CN), a new ad hoc measure we introduce here to indicate how many nodes in the network can actually transfer energy to the P700 reaction centre. We find that when progressively removing the weak links of lower EET, the Eff decreases, while the EET paths integrity (LCC and CN) is still preserved. This finding would show that the PSI is a resilient system owning a large window of functioning feasibility and it is completely impaired only when removing most of the network links. From the study of different types of chromophore, we propose different primary functions within the PSI system: chlorophyll a (CLA) molecules are the central nodes in the EET process, while other chromophore types have different primary functions. Furthermore, we perform nodes removal simulations to understand how the nodes/chromophores malfunctioning may affect PSI functioning. We discover that the removal of the CLA triggers the fastest decrease in the Eff, confirming that CAL is the main contributors to the high EET efficiency. Our outcomes open new perspectives of research, such comparing the PSI energy transfer efficiency of different natural and agricultural plant species and investigating the light-harvesting mechanisms of artificial photosynthesis both in plant agriculture and in the field of solar energy applications.


FEBS Letters ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 574 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 126-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline L. Aspinwall ◽  
James Duncan ◽  
Thomas Bibby ◽  
Conrad W. Mullineaux ◽  
James Barber

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