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Shedding Light on Primary Donors in Photosynthetic Reaction Centers

Chlorophylls (Chl)s exist in a variety of flavors and are ubiquitous in both the energy and electron transfer processes of photosynthesis. The functions they perform often occur on the ultrafast (fs–ns) time scale and until recently, these have been difficult to measure in real time. Further, the co...

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Autores principales: Gorka, Michael, Baldansuren, Amgalanbaatar, Malnati, Amanda, Gruszecki, Elijah, Golbeck, John H., Lakshmi, K. V.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8517396/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34659164
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.735666
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author Gorka, Michael
Baldansuren, Amgalanbaatar
Malnati, Amanda
Gruszecki, Elijah
Golbeck, John H.
Lakshmi, K. V.
author_facet Gorka, Michael
Baldansuren, Amgalanbaatar
Malnati, Amanda
Gruszecki, Elijah
Golbeck, John H.
Lakshmi, K. V.
author_sort Gorka, Michael
collection PubMed
description Chlorophylls (Chl)s exist in a variety of flavors and are ubiquitous in both the energy and electron transfer processes of photosynthesis. The functions they perform often occur on the ultrafast (fs–ns) time scale and until recently, these have been difficult to measure in real time. Further, the complexity of the binding pockets and the resulting protein-matrix effects that alter the respective electronic properties have rendered theoretical modeling of these states difficult. Recent advances in experimental methodology, computational modeling, and emergence of new reaction center (RC) structures have renewed interest in these processes and allowed researchers to elucidate previously ambiguous functions of Chls and related pheophytins. This is complemented by a wealth of experimental data obtained from decades of prior research. Studying the electronic properties of Chl molecules has advanced our understanding of both the nature of the primary charge separation and subsequent electron transfer processes of RCs. In this review, we examine the structures of primary electron donors in Type I and Type II RCs in relation to the vast body of spectroscopic research that has been performed on them to date. Further, we present density functional theory calculations on each oxidized primary donor to study both their electronic properties and our ability to model experimental spectroscopic data. This allows us to directly compare the electronic properties of hetero- and homodimeric RCs.
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spelling pubmed-85173962021-10-16 Shedding Light on Primary Donors in Photosynthetic Reaction Centers Gorka, Michael Baldansuren, Amgalanbaatar Malnati, Amanda Gruszecki, Elijah Golbeck, John H. Lakshmi, K. V. Front Microbiol Microbiology Chlorophylls (Chl)s exist in a variety of flavors and are ubiquitous in both the energy and electron transfer processes of photosynthesis. The functions they perform often occur on the ultrafast (fs–ns) time scale and until recently, these have been difficult to measure in real time. Further, the complexity of the binding pockets and the resulting protein-matrix effects that alter the respective electronic properties have rendered theoretical modeling of these states difficult. Recent advances in experimental methodology, computational modeling, and emergence of new reaction center (RC) structures have renewed interest in these processes and allowed researchers to elucidate previously ambiguous functions of Chls and related pheophytins. This is complemented by a wealth of experimental data obtained from decades of prior research. Studying the electronic properties of Chl molecules has advanced our understanding of both the nature of the primary charge separation and subsequent electron transfer processes of RCs. In this review, we examine the structures of primary electron donors in Type I and Type II RCs in relation to the vast body of spectroscopic research that has been performed on them to date. Further, we present density functional theory calculations on each oxidized primary donor to study both their electronic properties and our ability to model experimental spectroscopic data. This allows us to directly compare the electronic properties of hetero- and homodimeric RCs. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-10-01 /pmc/articles/PMC8517396/ /pubmed/34659164 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.735666 Text en Copyright © 2021 Gorka, Baldansuren, Malnati, Gruszecki, Golbeck and Lakshmi. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Microbiology
Gorka, Michael
Baldansuren, Amgalanbaatar
Malnati, Amanda
Gruszecki, Elijah
Golbeck, John H.
Lakshmi, K. V.
Shedding Light on Primary Donors in Photosynthetic Reaction Centers
title Shedding Light on Primary Donors in Photosynthetic Reaction Centers
title_full Shedding Light on Primary Donors in Photosynthetic Reaction Centers
title_fullStr Shedding Light on Primary Donors in Photosynthetic Reaction Centers
title_full_unstemmed Shedding Light on Primary Donors in Photosynthetic Reaction Centers
title_short Shedding Light on Primary Donors in Photosynthetic Reaction Centers
title_sort shedding light on primary donors in photosynthetic reaction centers
topic Microbiology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8517396/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34659164
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2021.735666
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