Structural basis of light harvesting by carotenoids: peridinin-chlorophyll-protein from Amphidinium carterae

Science. 1996 Jun 21;272(5269):1788-91. doi: 10.1126/science.272.5269.1788.

Abstract

Peridinin-chlorophyll-protein, a water-soluble light-harvesting complex that has a blue-green absorbing carotenoid as its main pigment, is present in most photosynthetic dinoflagellates. Its high-resolution (2.0 angstrom) x-ray structure reveals a noncrystallographic trimer in which each polypeptide contains an unusual jellyroll fold of the alpha-helical amino- and carboxyl-terminal domains. These domains constitute a scaffold with pseudo-twofold symmetry surrounding a hydrophobic cavity filled by two lipid, eight peridinin, and two chlorophyll a molecules. The structural basis for efficient excitonic energy transfer from peridinin to chlorophyll is found in the clustering of peridinins around the chlorophylls at van der Waals distances.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Carotenoids / chemistry*
  • Chlorophyll / chemistry
  • Chlorophyll A
  • Crystallography, X-Ray
  • Dinoflagellida / chemistry*
  • Dinoflagellida / metabolism
  • Energy Transfer
  • Hydrogen Bonding
  • Models, Molecular
  • Molecular Conformation
  • Photosynthesis
  • Protein Conformation*
  • Protein Folding
  • Protein Structure, Secondary
  • Protozoan Proteins / chemistry*

Substances

  • Protozoan Proteins
  • peridinin chlorophyll-a protein, Dinophyceae
  • Chlorophyll
  • peridinin
  • Carotenoids
  • Chlorophyll A

Associated data

  • PDB/1PPR