Dynamic architectures of photosynthetic supercomplexes in light and dark

Prof. (Fred) W.S. Chow (see ISI Highly Cited)
Prof. Jan M. Anderson FRS, FAA (see ISI Highly Cited)
A/Prof B. Hankamer (University of Queensland)

To understand the complex functionality of living chloroplasts we need to determine the dynamic architecture of membrane stacking in plant photosynthetic thylakoid membranes into areas of stacked or non-stacked membrane domains and the supramolecular organization of their photosynthetic machinery.  While intermediate atomic resolution of isolated thylakoid pigment-protein supercomplexes is now revealed, little is known about the dynamic organization of the thylakoid supercomplexes in vivo in the dark, in limiting, saturating or excess light where PSII becomes progressively photoinactivated.

Our goal is to study how the dynamic supramolecular organization of thylakoid supercomplexes, particularly photosystem II (PSII), under various dark and light conditions between the stacked and unstacked thylakoid membrane domains of Arabidopsis chloroplasts and how flexibility in their organization influences various regulatory mechanisms of photosynthesis, as well as how dynamic structural changes in grana stacking assist function.

This is a joint project between Prof W.S. Chow & Prof Jan Anderson, RSBS, ANU and A/Prof Ben Hankamer, The Institute for Biomolecular Sciences, University of Queensland.  Plant materials, biochemistry, kinetic optical spectrophotometry and chlorophyll fluorescence techniques will be employed at ANU (Chow), while the most advanced high-resolution cryo-electron microscopy and single particle analysis available in Australia would be undertaken at IBS, UQ (Hankamer).

References

Chow WS, Kim EH, Horton P and Anderson JM (2005) Granal stacking of thylakoid membranes in higher plant chloroplasts: the physicochemical forces at work and the
functional consequences that ensue. Photochemical and Photobiological Sciences 4: 1081-1090.

Anderson, J.M. and Chow, W.S. (2002) Structural and functional dynamics of plant photosystem II. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. London B 357: 1421-1430.

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