Chinese Journal of Nature ›› 2021, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (3): 189-198.doi: 10.3969/j.issn.0253-9608.2021.03.004

• Review Article • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Atomic structure of the photosynthetic reaction center from a green sulfur bacterium

CHEN Jinghua, KUANG Tingyun, SHEN Jianren, ZHANG Xing   

  1. ①Center of Cryo-Electron Microscopy, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Department of Biophysics, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China; ②Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China
  • Received:2021-03-05 Online:2021-06-25 Published:2021-06-13

Abstract: Green sulfur bacteria are strictly anaerobic photosynthetic bacteria, and perform anoxygenic photosynthesis by obtaining electrons from sulfides. The photosynthetic light-reaction system of green sulfur bacteria consists of a peripheral light-harvesting antenna called chlorosome, an energy transmitter FMO protein and the reaction center complex. In this paper, we describe the atomic structure of the FMO-reaction center complex from a green sulfur bacterium solved by cryo-electron microscopy, insight into the energy transfer mechanism within the complex based on the structure obtained, and their implications on the evolution of early photoreaction systems.