Lipidic Sponge Phase Crystal Structure of a Photosynthetic Reaction Center Reveals Lipids on the Protein Surface
- 23 September 2009
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Chemical Society (ACS) in Biochemistry
- Vol. 48 (41), 9831-9838
- https://doi.org/10.1021/bi900545e
Abstract
Membrane proteins are embedded in a lipid bilayer and maintain strong interactions with lipid molecules. Tightly bound lipids are responsible for vertical positioning and integration of proteins in the membrane and for assembly of multisubunit complexes and occasionally act as substrates. In this work we present the lipidic sponge phase crystal structure of the reaction center from Blastochloris viridis to 1.86 A, which reveals lipid molecules interacting with the protein surface. A diacylglycerol molecule is bound, through a thioether bond, to the N-terminus of the tetraheme cytochrome c subunit. From the electron density recovered at the Q(B) site and the observed change in recombination kinetics in lipidic sponge phase-grown crystals, the mobile ubiquinone appears to be displaced by a monoolein molecule. A 36 A long electron density feature is observed at the interface of transmembrane helices belonging to the H- and M-subunits, probably arising from an unidentified lipid.Keywords
This publication has 46 references indexed in Scilit:
- Membrane protein crystallization from lipidic phasesCurrent Opinion in Structural Biology, 2009
- A Lipidic-Sponge Phase Screen for Membrane Protein CrystallizationStructure, 2008
- Nanoliter microfluidic hybrid method for simultaneous screening and optimization validated with crystallization of membrane proteinsProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2006
- Lipidic Sponge Phase Crystallization of Membrane ProteinsJournal of Molecular Biology, 2006
- Conformational regulation of charge recombination reactions in a photosynthetic bacterial reaction centerNature Structural & Molecular Biology, 2005
- Lipidic Cubic Phase Crystal Structure of the Photosynthetic Reaction Centre from Rhodobacter sphaeroides at 2.35Å ResolutionJournal of Molecular Biology, 2003
- Whole-Genome Analysis of Photosynthetic ProkaryotesScience, 2002
- Molecular Evidence for the Early Evolution of PhotosynthesisScience, 2000
- Lipidic cubic phases: A novel concept for the crystallization of membrane proteinsProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 1996
- Structure of the protein subunits in the photosynthetic reaction centre of Rhodopseudomonas viridis at 3Å resolutionNature, 1985