Exchange pathways of plastoquinone and plastoquinol in the photosystem II complex

Floris J. Van Eerden, Manuel N. Melo, Pim W. J. M. Frederix, Xavier Periole and Siewert J. Marrink ()
Additional contact information
Floris J. Van Eerden: Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute & Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen
Manuel N. Melo: Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute & Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen
Pim W. J. M. Frederix: Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute & Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen
Xavier Periole: Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute & Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen
Siewert J. Marrink: Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute & Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Plastoquinone (PLQ) acts as an electron carrier between photosystem II (PSII) and the cytochrome b6f complex. To understand how PLQ enters and leaves PSII, here we show results of coarse grained molecular dynamics simulations of PSII embedded in the thylakoid membrane, covering a total simulation time of more than 0.5 ms. The long time scale allows the observation of many spontaneous entries of PLQ into PSII, and the unbinding of plastoquinol (PLQol) from the complex. In addition to the two known channels, we observe a third channel for PLQ/PLQol diffusion between the thylakoid membrane and the PLQ binding sites. Our simulations point to a promiscuous diffusion mechanism in which all three channels function as entry and exit channels. The exchange cavity serves as a PLQ reservoir. Our simulations provide a direct view on the exchange of electron carriers, a key step of the photosynthesis machinery.

Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15214 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms15214

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15214

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().