Photoreaction centres are Nature's solar batteries. These nanometre-scale power producers are responsible for transducing the energy of sunlight into a form that can be used by biological systems, thereby powering most of the biological activity on the planet. Although to the layman the word ‘photosynthesis’ is usually associated with green plants, much of our understanding of the molecular basis of biological transduction of light energy has come from studies of purple photosynthetic bacteria. Their RCs (reaction centres) and attendant light-harvesting complexes have been subjected to an intensive spectroscopic scrutiny, coupled with genetic manipulation and structural studies, that has revealed many of the molecular and mechanistic details of biological energy transfer, electron transfer and coupled proton translocation. This review provides a short overview of the structure and mechanism of the purple bacterial RC, focusing in the main on the most heavily studied complex from Rhodobacter sphaeroides.
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Conference Article|
March 20 2009
The petite purple photosynthetic powerpack
Michael R. Jones
Michael R. Jones
1
1Department of Biochemistry, School of Medical Sciences, University of Bristol, University Walk, Bristol BS8 1TD, U.K.
1email m.r.jones@bristol.ac.uk
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Publisher: Portland Press Ltd
Received:
October 14 2008
Online ISSN: 1470-8752
Print ISSN: 0300-5127
© The Authors Journal compilation © 2009 Biochemical Society
2009
Biochem Soc Trans (2009) 37 (2): 400–407.
Article history
Received:
October 14 2008
Citation
Michael R. Jones; The petite purple photosynthetic powerpack. Biochem Soc Trans 1 April 2009; 37 (2): 400–407. doi: https://doi.org/10.1042/BST0370400
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