Crystal structure of photosystem II from Synechococcus elongatus at 3.8 resolution

Oxygenic photosynthesis is the principal energy converter on earth. It is driven by photosystems I and II, two large protein-cofactor complexes located in the thylakoid membrane and acting in series. In photosystem II, water is oxidized; this event provides the overall process with the necessary ele...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 2001-02, Vol.409 (6821), p.739-743
Main Authors: Saenger, Wolfram, Zouni, Athina, Witt, Horst-Tobias, Kern, Jan, Fromme, Petra, Krauss, Norbert, Orth, Peter
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bacteriology
Biological and medical sciences
Chlorophyll - chemistry
Crystallography, X-Ray
Cyanobacteria - chemistry
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humanities and Social Sciences
letter
Light-Harvesting Protein Complexes
Manganese - chemistry
Metabolism. Enzymes
Microbiology
Models, Molecular
Molecular biophysics
multidisciplinary
Photochemistry. Photosynthesis. Bioluminescence
Photosynthetic Reaction Center Complex Proteins - chemistry
Photosystem II Protein Complex
Protein Conformation
Radiation-biomolecule interaction
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
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Summary:Oxygenic photosynthesis is the principal energy converter on earth. It is driven by photosystems I and II, two large protein-cofactor complexes located in the thylakoid membrane and acting in series. In photosystem II, water is oxidized; this event provides the overall process with the necessary electrons and protons, and the atmosphere with oxygen. To date, structural information on the architecture of the complex has been provided by electron microscopy of intact, active photosystem II at 15-30 resolution, and by electron crystallography on two-dimensional crystals of D1-D2-CP47 photosystem II fragments without water oxidizing activity at 8 resolution. Here we describe the X-ray structure of photosystem II on the basis of crystals fully active in water oxidation. The structure shows how protein subunits and cofactors are spatially organized. The larger subunits are assigned and the locations and orientations of the cofactors are defined. We also provide new information on the position, size and shape of the manganese cluster, which catalyzes water oxidation.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/35055589