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Self-assembly and structural–functional flexibility of oxygenic photosynthetic machineries: personal perspectives

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Abstract

This short review, with a bit of historical aspect and a strong personal bias and emphases on open questions, is focusing on the (macro-)organization and structural–functional flexibilities of the photosynthetic apparatus of oxygenic photosynthetic organisms at different levels of the structural complexity—selected problems that have attracted most my attention in the past years and decades. These include (i) the anisotropic organization of the pigment–protein complexes and photosynthetic membranes—a basic organizing principle of living matter, which can, and probably should be adopted to intelligent materials; (ii) the organization of protein complexes into chiral macrodomains, large self-assembling highly organized but structurally flexible entities with unique spectroscopic fingerprints—structures, where, important, high-level regulatory functions appear to 'reside’; (iii) a novel, dissipation-assisted mechanism of structural changes, based on a thermo-optic effect: ultrafast thermal transients in the close vicinity of dissipation of unused excitation energy, which is capable of inducing elementary structural changes; it makes plants capable of responding to excess excitation with reaction rates proportional to the overexcitation above the light-saturation of photosynthesis; (iv) the 3D ultrastructure of the granum-stroma thylakoid membrane assembly and other multilamellar membrane systems, and their remodelings—associated with regulatory mechanisms; (v) the molecular organization and structural–functional plasticity of the main light-harvesting complex of plants, in relation to their crystal structure and different in vivo and in vitro states; and (vi) the enigmatic role of non-bilayer lipids and lipid phases in the bilayer thylakoid membrane—warranting its high protein content and contributing to its structural flexibility.

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Abbreviations

Chl:

Chlorophyll

CD:

Circular dichroism

DGDG:

Digalactosyl-diacylglycerol

LD:

Linear dichroism

LHCI:

Light-harvesting antenna complex of photosystem I

LHCII:

Light-harvesting protein complex II

MCD:

Magnetic circular dichroism

MGDG:

Monogalactosyl-diacylglycerol

PSI or II:

Photosystem I or II

psi:

Polymer and salt-induced

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Acknowledgments

I am greatly indebted to all my coworkers of the past more than four decades; it was a privilege for me to work together with them on problems what we mutually found important or exciting, or just interesting for one reason or another. On the present subjects, the List of References is thus also a way to acknowledge most warmly their contributions, often guidance, and their dedicated and hard works; specifically, in cases when their eagerness and enthusiasm were absolutely essential to address enigmatic or too hard-to-answer questions. The financial supports from OTKA (K112688) and TÁMOP (422D-15/1/KONV-2015-0024) are also acknowledged.

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    Győző Garab

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Garab, G. Self-assembly and structural–functional flexibility of oxygenic photosynthetic machineries: personal perspectives. Photosynth Res 127, 131–150 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-015-0192-z

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