Design and engineering of photosynthetic light-harvesting and electron transfer using length, time, and energy scales.
Decades of research on the physical processes and chemical reaction-pathways in photosynthetic enzymes have resulted in an extensive database of kinetic information. Recently, this database has been augmented by a variety of high and medium resolution crystal structures of key photosynthetic enzymes that now include the two photosystems (PSI and PSII) of oxygenic photosynthetic organisms. Here, we examine the currently available structural and functional information from an engineer's point of view with the long-term goal of reproducing the key features of natural photosystems in de novo designed and custom-built molecular solar energy conversion devices. We find that the basic physics of the transfer processes, namely, the time constraints imposed by the rates of incoming photon flux and the various decay processes allow for a large degree of tolerance in the engineering parameters. Moreover, we find that the requirements to guarantee energy and electron transfer rates that yield high efficiency in natural photosystems are largely met by control of distance between chromophores and redox cofactors. Thus, for projected de novo designed constructions, the control of spatial organization of cofactor molecules within a dense array is initially given priority. Nevertheless, constructions accommodating dense arrays of different cofactors, some well within 1 nm from each other, still presents a significant challenge for protein design.
Noy
Dror
D
Johnson Research Foundation, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
Moser
Christopher C
CC
Dutton
P Leslie
PL
D055592:Biophysical Phenomena; D001703:Biophysics; D004579:Electron Transport / Q000502:physiology*; D004735:Energy Transfer / Q000502:physiology; D031541:Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer; D008027:Light; D045342:Light-Harvesting Protein Complexes / Q000235:genetics; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D010788:Photosynthesis / Q000502:physiology*; D045322:Photosynthetic Reaction Center Complex Proteins / Q000502:physiology; D045331:Photosystem I Protein Complex / Q000502:physiology; D045332:Photosystem II Protein Complex / Q000502:physiology; D013997:Time Factors
D045342:Light-Harvesting Protein Complexes; D045322:Photosynthetic Reaction Center Complex Proteins; D045331:Photosystem I Protein Complex; D045332:Photosystem II Protein Complex