We are now in an exciting era of molecular bioenergetics. High-resolution x-ray structures have been determined for several of the key components of bioenergetics systems, including the respiratory enzymes cytochrome oxidase (1–4) and the bc1 complex (5, 6), the F1 component of the F1Fo-ATPase (7), the light-driven proton pump bacteriorhodopsin (8, 9), and the bacterial photosynthetic reaction ...

The evolutionary origin of photosynthetic reaction centers has long remained elusive. Here, we use sequence and structural analysis to demonstrate an evolutionary link between the cytochrome b subunit of the cytochrome bc(1) complex and the core polypeptides of the photosynthetic bacterial reaction center. In particular, we have identified an area of significant sequence similarity between a th...

The earliest branching cyanobacterium, Gloeobacter, exhibits a number of ancestral traits including the lack thylakoids. It occurs epilithically in microbial mats, both subaerially and submerged low-salinity habitats. These habitats absence thylakoids are associated with occurrence membrane-associated photosynthetic processes plasma membrane, possibly limiting rate assembly reassembly oxygen-ev...

Electrostatic interactions play a key role in the coupling of electron and proton transfer in membrane protein complexes during the conversion of the energy stored in sunlight or reduced substrates into biochemical energy via a transmembrane electrochemical proton potential. Principles of charge stabilization within membrane proteins are reviewed and discussed for photosynthetic reaction center...

Photosynthetic electron flow in the bacterium Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides involves two c-type cytochromes, one membrane-bound and the other a soluble protein, cytochrome c2. Membranes deficient in cytochrome c2 were used for photo-oxidation studies, with and without the addition of purified cytochrome c2. The results favour a series interrelation, membrane cytochrome c-cytochrome c2-reaction c...

During oxygenic photosynthesis in cyanobacteria and chloroplasts of plants and eukaryotic algae, conversion of light energy to biologically useful chemical energy occurs in the specialized thylakoid membranes. Light-induced charge separation at the reaction centers of photosystems I and II, two multisubunit pigment-protein complexes in the thylakoid membranes, energetically drive sequential pho...

Photosynthesis was established on Earth more than 3 billion years ago. All available evidences suggest that the earliest photosynthetic organisms were anoxygenic and that oxygen-evolving photosynthesis is a more recent development. The reaction center complexes that form the heart of the energy storage process are integral membrane pigment proteins that span the membrane in vectorial fashion to...

To investigate the association between chloroplast DNA (cp DNA) and the photosynthetic membranes of spinach chloroplasts, previously suggested by electron-microscope autoradiography, use has been made of vesicles formed by isolating chloroplasts directly in 3.5 mM Mg2+. These chloroplast vesicles consist of photosynthetic membranes, separate from chloroplast envelope membranes. Light and electr...

Cyanobacteria are photosynthetic microbes with highly differentiated membrane systems. These organisms contain an outer membrane, plasma membrane, and an internal system of thylakoid membranes where the photosynthetic and respiratory machinery are found. This existence of compartmentalization and differentiation of membrane systems poses a number of challenges for cyanobacterial cells in terms ...