scholarly journals Charting the native architecture of thylakoid membranes with single-molecule precision

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wojciech Wietrzynski ◽  
Miroslava Schaffer ◽  
Dimitry Tegunov ◽  
Sahradha Albert ◽  
Atsuko Kanazawa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Single Molecule ◽  
Electron Tomography ◽  
Protein Complexes ◽  
Membrane Surface ◽  
Thylakoid Membranes ◽  
Surface Topology ◽  
Thylakoid Stacking ◽  
Molecular Forces ◽  
Photosynthetic Regulation ◽  
Molecular Landscape

Thylakoid membranes scaffold an assortment of large protein complexes that work together to harness the energy of light to produce oxygen, NADPH, and ATP. It has been a longstanding challenge to visualize how the intricate thylakoid network organizes these protein complexes to finely tune the photosynthetic reactions. Using cryo-electron tomography to analyze membrane surface topology, we have mapped the native molecular landscape of thylakoid membranes within green algae cells. Our tomograms provide insights into the molecular forces that drive thylakoid stacking and reveal that photosystems I and II are strictly segregated at the borders between appressed and non-appressed membrane domains. This new approach to charting thylakoid topology lays the foundation for dissecting photosynthetic regulation at the level of single protein complexes within the cell.

scholarly journals Charting the native architecture of Chlamydomonas thylakoid membranes with single-molecule precision

eLife ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wojciech Wietrzynski ◽  
Miroslava Schaffer ◽  
Dimitry Tegunov ◽  
Sahradha Albert ◽  
Atsuko Kanazawa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Single Molecule ◽  
Electron Tomography ◽  
Protein Complexes ◽  
Membrane Surface ◽  
Thylakoid Membranes ◽  
Surface Topology ◽  
Thylakoid Stacking ◽  
Molecular Forces ◽  
Photosynthetic Regulation ◽  
The Individual

Thylakoid membranes scaffold an assortment of large protein complexes that work together to harness the energy of light. It has been a longstanding challenge to visualize how the intricate thylakoid network organizes these protein complexes to finely tune the photosynthetic reactions. Previously, we used in situ cryo-electron tomography to reveal the native architecture of thylakoid membranes (Engel et al., 2015). Here, we leverage technical advances to resolve the individual protein complexes within these membranes. Combined with a new method to visualize membrane surface topology, we map the molecular landscapes of thylakoid membranes inside green algae cells. Our tomograms provide insights into the molecular forces that drive thylakoid stacking and reveal that photosystems I and II are strictly segregated at the borders between appressed and non-appressed membrane domains. This new approach to charting thylakoid topology lays the foundation for dissecting photosynthetic regulation at the level of single protein complexes within the cell.

scholarly journals Structural and functional analyses of photosystem II in the marine diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum

2019 ◽  
Vol 116 (35) ◽  
pp. 17316-17322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Orly Levitan ◽  
Muyuan Chen ◽  
Xuyuan Kuang ◽  
Kuan Yu Cheong ◽  
Jennifer Jiang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Photosystem Ii ◽  
Spatial Organization ◽  
Higher Plants ◽  
Electron Tomography ◽  
Protein Complexes ◽  
Spatial Differentiation ◽  
Thylakoid Membranes ◽  
Marine Diatom ◽  
Red Algal ◽  
Antenna Proteins

A descendant of the red algal lineage, diatoms are unicellular eukaryotic algae characterized by thylakoid membranes that lack the spatial differentiation of stroma and grana stacks found in green algae and higher plants. While the photophysiology of diatoms has been studied extensively, very little is known about the spatial organization of the multimeric photosynthetic protein complexes within their thylakoid membranes. Here, using cryo-electron tomography, proteomics, and biophysical analyses, we elucidate the macromolecular composition, architecture, and spatial distribution of photosystem II complexes in diatom thylakoid membranes. Structural analyses reveal 2 distinct photosystem II populations: loose clusters of complexes associated with antenna proteins and compact 2D crystalline arrays of dimeric cores. Biophysical measurements reveal only 1 photosystem II functional absorption cross section, suggesting that only the former population is photosynthetically active. The tomographic data indicate that the arrays of photosystem II cores are physically separated from those associated with antenna proteins. We hypothesize that the islands of photosystem cores are repair stations, where photodamaged proteins can be replaced. Our results strongly imply convergent evolution between the red and the green photosynthetic lineages toward spatial segregation of dynamic, functional microdomains of photosystem II supercomplexes.

Thylakoid membrane development in pigment-deficient wheat chloroplasts

1991 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
pp. 214-215
Author(s):  
Thomas Freeman ◽  
Murray Duysen ◽  
Ken Eskins ◽  
James Guikema
Keyword(s):  
Photosystem Ii ◽  
Protein Complexes ◽  
Continuous Light ◽  
Thylakoid Membranes ◽  
Higher Plant ◽  
Wheat Seedlings ◽  
Etiolated Seedlings ◽  
Pigment Protein Complexes ◽  
Thylakoid Stacking ◽  
Membrane Development

The thylakoid membranes of higher plant chloroplasts contain at least two major pigment protein complexes, photosystem I (PSI), and photosystem II (PSII). The mature apoprotein of these complexes (involved in the initial reactions of photosynthesis) bind specific chlorophylls (Chl) and specific carotenoids in an unknown manner. It has been suggested, however, that the synthesis of pigments is normally coordinated with that of apoproteins. We have examined the effect of gabaculine (3-amino-2, 3-dihydrobenzoic acid) on granal thylakoid stacking as well as pigment and apoprotein accumulations for PSI and PSII in wheat.Gabaculine (0.5mM) was applied with nutrient solution to 6.5 day-old wheat seedlings maintained in a growth chamber at 23C. One seedling lot grown under continuous light (400 μmol photons s-1 m-2) possessed green primary leaves at time of treatment whereas another seedling lot, dark grown, possessed only etiolated primary leaves. Twelve hours after treatment, the etiolated seedlings were transferred into continuous light. The primary and secondary leaves were subsequently harvested from 14 day-old seedlings of both lots.

scholarly journals Electron tomography of plant thylakoid membranes

2011 ◽  
Vol 62 (7) ◽  
pp. 2393-2402 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Daum ◽  
W. Kuhlbrandt
Keyword(s):  
Electron Tomography ◽  
Thylakoid Membranes

scholarly journals Fast Diffusion of the Unassembled PetC1-GFP Protein in the Cyanobacterial Thylakoid Membrane

Life ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Radek Kaňa ◽  
Gábor Steinbach ◽  
Roman Sobotka ◽  
György Vámosi ◽  
Josef Komenda
Keyword(s):  
Membrane Proteins ◽  
Single Molecule ◽  
Protein Interactions ◽  
Thylakoid Membrane ◽  
Protein Complexes ◽  
Correlation Spectroscopy ◽  
Membrane Microdomains ◽  
Fast Diffusion ◽  
Light Harvesting Complexes ◽  
Term Survival

Biological membranes were originally described as a fluid mosaic with uniform distribution of proteins and lipids. Later, heterogeneous membrane areas were found in many membrane systems including cyanobacterial thylakoids. In fact, cyanobacterial pigment–protein complexes (photosystems, phycobilisomes) form a heterogeneous mosaic of thylakoid membrane microdomains (MDs) restricting protein mobility. The trafficking of membrane proteins is one of the key factors for long-term survival under stress conditions, for instance during exposure to photoinhibitory light conditions. However, the mobility of unbound ‘free’ proteins in thylakoid membrane is poorly characterized. In this work, we assessed the maximal diffusional ability of a small, unbound thylakoid membrane protein by semi-single molecule FCS (fluorescence correlation spectroscopy) method in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC6803. We utilized a GFP-tagged variant of the cytochrome b6f subunit PetC1 (PetC1-GFP), which was not assembled in the b6f complex due to the presence of the tag. Subsequent FCS measurements have identified a very fast diffusion of the PetC1-GFP protein in the thylakoid membrane (D = 0.14 − 2.95 µm2s−1). This means that the mobility of PetC1-GFP was comparable with that of free lipids and was 50–500 times higher in comparison to the mobility of proteins (e.g., IsiA, LHCII—light-harvesting complexes of PSII) naturally associated with larger thylakoid membrane complexes like photosystems. Our results thus demonstrate the ability of free thylakoid-membrane proteins to move very fast, revealing the crucial role of protein–protein interactions in the mobility restrictions for large thylakoid protein complexes.

scholarly journals Probing the biogenesis pathway and dynamics of thylakoid membranes

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tuomas Huokko ◽  
Tao Ni ◽  
Gregory F. Dykes ◽  
Deborah M. Simpson ◽  
Philip Brownridge ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plasma Membrane ◽  
Photosystem I ◽  
Spatial Organization ◽  
Electron Flux ◽  
Protein Complexes ◽  
Thylakoid Membranes ◽  
Thylakoid Biogenesis ◽  
Photosynthetic Complexes ◽  
Photosynthetic Machinery ◽  
Pcc 7942

AbstractHow thylakoid membranes are generated to form a metabolically active membrane network and how thylakoid membranes orchestrate the insertion and localization of protein complexes for efficient electron flux remain elusive. Here, we develop a method to modulate thylakoid biogenesis in the rod-shaped cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 by modulating light intensity during cell growth, and probe the spatial-temporal stepwise biogenesis process of thylakoid membranes in cells. Our results reveal that the plasma membrane and regularly arranged concentric thylakoid layers have no physical connections. The newly synthesized thylakoid membrane fragments emerge between the plasma membrane and pre-existing thylakoids. Photosystem I monomers appear in the thylakoid membranes earlier than other mature photosystem assemblies, followed by generation of Photosystem I trimers and Photosystem II complexes. Redistribution of photosynthetic complexes during thylakoid biogenesis ensures establishment of the spatial organization of the functional thylakoid network. This study provides insights into the dynamic biogenesis process and maturation of the functional photosynthetic machinery.

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