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Publication Abstract from PubMed

Photosynthetic reaction centres harvest the energy content of sunlight by transporting electrons across an energy-transducing biological membrane. Here we use time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography(1) using an X-ray free-electron laser(2) to observe light-induced structural changes in the photosynthetic reaction centre of Blastochloris viridis on a timescale of picoseconds. Structural perturbations first occur at the special pair of chlorophyll molecules of the photosynthetic reaction centre that are photo-oxidized by light. Electron transfer to the menaquinone acceptor on the opposite side of the membrane induces a movement of this cofactor together with lower amplitude protein rearrangements. These observations reveal how proteins use conformational dynamics to stabilize the charge-separation steps of electron-transfer reactions.

Ultrafast structural changes within a photosynthetic reaction centre.,Dods R, Bath P, Morozov D, Gagner VA, Arnlund D, Luk HL, Kubel J, Maj M, Vallejos A, Wickstrand C, Bosman R, Beyerlein KR, Nelson G, Liang M, Milathianaki D, Robinson J, Harimoorthy R, Berntsen P, Malmerberg E, Johansson L, Andersson R, Carbajo S, Claesson E, Conrad CE, Dahl P, Hammarin G, Hunter MS, Li C, Lisova S, Royant A, Safari C, Sharma A, Williams GJ, Yefanov O, Westenhoff S, Davidsson J, DePonte DP, Boutet S, Barty A, Katona G, Groenhof G, Branden G, Neutze R Nature. 2021 Jan;589(7841):310-314. doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-3000-7. Epub 2020 Dec , 2. PMID:33268896^[2]

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.