A Novel Chloroplast Super-Complex Consisting of the ATP Synthase and Photosystem I Reaction Center

Several ‘super-complexes’ of individual hetero-oligomeric membrane protein complexes, whose function is to facilitate intra-membrane electron and proton transfer and harvesting of light energy, have been previously characterized in the mitochondrial cristae and chloroplast thylakoid membranes. The latter membrane is reported here to also be the location of an intra-membrane super-complex which is dominated by the ATP-synthase and photosystem I (PSI) reaction-center complexes, defined by mass spectrometry, clear-native PAGE and Western Blot analyses. This is the first documented presence of ATP synthase in a super-complex with the PSI reaction-center located in the non-appressed stromal domain of the thylakoid membrane.