Chlorophyll‐binding Proteins

Heiko Lokstein, Universität Potsdam, Golm, Germany
Bernhard Grimm, Humboldt‐Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Published online: September 2007

DOI: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0020085

Chlorophylls and bacteriochlorophylls are the dominant pigments on Earth and serve noncovalently bound to specific proteins as principal light-harvesting and energy-transforming chromophores in photosynthetic organisms. The enormous progress that has been achieved in the recent years in elucidation of structures and functions of chlorophyll-binding proteins, in particular, photosynthetic reaction centres and light-harvesting (antenna) complexes is reviewed.

Keywords: bacteriochlorophylls; chlorophylls; light-harvesting complexes; photosynthesis; reaction centres; photosystems; photoprotection

Figure 1. Structure of the photosystem II core-antenna complex CP43 from the thermophilic cyanobacterium Thermosynecchococcus elongatus at 3.0 Å resolution (Loll et al., 2005). Side view with regard to the thylakoid membrane plane. The protein backbone comprising six transmembrane -helical domains is shown in grey. Thirteen noncovalently bound chlorophylls a are shown in green, four -carotenes in orange.
Figure 2. Structure of the trimeric main light-harvesting complex (LH-II) of plants at 2.72 Å resolution (Liu et al., 2004). Top view with regard to the thylakoid membrane plane. The protein backbone consisting of three transmembrane -helical domains is shown in grey. One monomeric subunit noncovalently binds eight chlorophylls a and six chlorophylls b (shown in cyan and green, respectively) as well as two luteins (yellow); one neoxanthin (orange) and one violaxanthin (or its deepoxidation products, antheraxanthin or zeaxanthin; red).
Figure 3. Evolution of the chlorophyll a/b-binding light-harvesting protein family by multiple gene duplication, fusion and helix deletion events. One- and two-helix HLIPs occur in cyanobacteria, the four-helix PsbS protein, LH complexes and ELIPS are found in plants. Adapted from Montane and Kloppstech, 2000.
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 References
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 Further Reading
    book Blankenship RE (2002) Molecular Mechanisms of Photosynthesis. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Science.
    book Green BR and ParsonW (2003) Light Harvesting Antennas (Advances in Photosynthesis and Respiration, Vol. 13). Dordrecht: Springer.
    book Grimm B, Porra R, Rüdiger W and Scheer H (eds) (2006) Chlorophylls and Bacteriochlorophylls: Biochemistry, Biophysics, Functions and Applications (Advances in Photosynthesis and Respiration, Vol. 25). Dordrecht: Springer.

Related Sub-Topics:

Protein Structure | Proteins: Structure, Function, Metabolism | Other Biomolecules: Structure, Function, Metabolism | Photosynthesis
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Article Title: Chlorophyll‐binding Proteins
 
How to Cite close
Lokstein, Heiko, and Grimm, Bernhard(Sep 2007) Chlorophyll‐binding Proteins. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0020085]