Abstract
Oxygenic photosynthesis is the principal producer of both oxygen and organic matter on earth. The primary step in this process - the conversion of sunlight into chemical energy - is driven by four, multisubunit, membrane-protein complexes that are known as photosystem I, photosystem II, cytochrome b(6)f and F-ATPase. Structural insights into these complexes are now providing a framework for the exploration not only of energy and electron transfer, but also of the evolutionary forces that shaped the photosynthetic apparatus.
Publication types
- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
- Review
MeSH terms
- Algal Proteins / chemistry
- Algal Proteins / metabolism
- Animals
- Chloroplasts / metabolism
- Chloroplasts / ultrastructure
- Electron Transport / physiology
- Light
- Models, Molecular
- Multienzyme Complexes*
- Oxygen / metabolism*
- Photosynthesis / physiology*
- Plant Physiological Phenomena
- Plant Proteins / chemistry
- Plant Proteins / metabolism
- Protein Conformation
- Protein Subunits / chemistry
- Protein Subunits / metabolism
- Protozoan Proteins / chemistry
- Protozoan Proteins / metabolism
Substances
- Algal Proteins
- Multienzyme Complexes
- Plant Proteins
- Protein Subunits
- Protozoan Proteins
- Oxygen