Revealing the Dynamics of Thylakoid Membranes in Living Cyanobacterial Cells

Cyanobacteria are photosynthetic prokaryotes that make major contributions to the production of the oxygen in the Earth atmosphere. The photosynthetic machinery in cyanobacterial cells is housed in flattened membrane structures called thylakoids. The structural organization of cyanobacterial cells a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2016-01, Vol.6 (1), p.19627-19627, Article 19627
Main Authors: Stingaciu, Laura-Roxana, O’Neill, Hugh, Liberton, Michelle, Urban, Volker S., Pakrasi, Himadri B., Ohl, Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/57/2270
639/301/923/3931
BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Cyanobacteria
Cyanobacteria - metabolism
Electrochemistry
Electron transfer
Environmental conditions
Humanities and Social Sciences
Illumination
Light
Membrane fluidity
Membranes
multidisciplinary
Neutron scattering
Photosynthesis
Prokaryotes
Reaction centers
Science
Temperature
Thylakoid membranes
Thylakoids
Thylakoids - metabolism
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Summary:Cyanobacteria are photosynthetic prokaryotes that make major contributions to the production of the oxygen in the Earth atmosphere. The photosynthetic machinery in cyanobacterial cells is housed in flattened membrane structures called thylakoids. The structural organization of cyanobacterial cells and the arrangement of the thylakoid membranes in response to environmental conditions have been widely investigated. However, there is limited knowledge about the internal dynamics of these membranes in terms of their flexibility and motion during the photosynthetic process. We present a direct observation of thylakoid membrane undulatory motion in vivo and show a connection between membrane mobility and photosynthetic activity. High-resolution inelastic neutron scattering experiments on the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 assessed the flexibility of cyanobacterial thylakoid membrane sheets and the dependence of the membranes on illumination conditions. We observed softer thylakoid membranes in the dark that have three-to four fold excess mobility compared to membranes under high light conditions. Our analysis indicates that electron transfer between photosynthetic reaction centers and the associated electrochemical proton gradient across the thylakoid membrane result in a significant driving force for excess membrane dynamics. These observations provide a deeper understanding of the relationship between photosynthesis and cellular architecture.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/srep19627