In higher plants and green algae, photosystem II (PSII) usually combines with light-harvesting complex II (LHCII) to form the PSII-LHCII supercomplex. Under low-light conditions, the PSII-LHCII supercomplexes are organized laterally into higher-order PSII-LHCII megacomplexes and semi-crystalline arrays to optimize photosynthetic efficiency.
A collaborative study has deciphered the cryo-EM structure of the spinach type I PSII-LHCII megacomplex, providing insights into the principles of higher-order assembly and the potential regulatory mechanisms of plant PSII under low-light conditions.
The study, led by researchers from the Institute of Biophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Saint Louis University, and the University of Washington in St. Louis, is published in Science Advances.
By combining structural biology, crosslinking mass spectrometry, ultrafast time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy, and other advanced techniques, the researchers elucidated the detailed architectural principles of a major type of spinach photosynthetic megacomplex (type I).
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