Comparative analysis of plastocyanin-cytochrome f complex formation in higher plants, green algae and cyanobacteria

Mechanisms of the complex formation between plastocyanin and cytochrome f in higher plants (Spinacia oleracea and Brassica rapa), green microalgae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and two species of cyanobacteria (Phormidium laminosum and Nostoc sp.) were investigated using combined Brownian and molecular dynamics simulations and hierarchical cluster analysis. In higher plants and green algae, electrostatic interactions force plastocyanin molecule close to the heme of cytochrome f. In the subsequent rotation of plastocyanin molecule around the point of electrostatic contact in the vicinity of cytochrome f, copper (Cu) atom approaches cytochrome heme forming a stable configuration where cytochrome f molecule behaves as a rather rigid body without conformational changes. In Nostoc plastocyanin molecule approaches cytochrome f in a different orientation (head-on) where the stabilization of the plastocyanin-cytochrome f complex is accompanied by the conformational changes of the G188E189D190 loop that stabilizes the whole complex. In cyanobacterium P. laminosum, electrostatic preorientation of the approaching molecules was not detected, thus indicating that random motions rather than long-range electrostatic interactions are responsible for the proper mutual orientation. We demonstrated that despite the structural similarity of the investigated electron transport proteins in different photosynthetic organisms, the complexity of molecular mechanisms of the complex formation increases in the following sequence: non-heterocystous cyanobacteria - heterocystous cyanobacteria - green algae - flowering plants.

Photosynthetic Electron Transfer by Dint of Protein Mobile Carriers. Multi-particle Brownian and Molecular Modeling

The paper presents the review of works on modeling the interaction of photosynthetic proteins using the multiparticle Brownian dynamics method developed at the Department of Biophysics, Biological Faculty, Lomonosov Moscow State University. The method describes the displacement of individual macromolecules – mobile electron carriers, and their electrostatic interactions between each other and with pigment-protein complexes embedded in photosynthetic membrane. Three-dimensional models of the protein molecules were constructed on the basis of the data from the Protein Data Bank. We applied the Brownian methods coupled to molecular dynamic simulations to reveal the role of electrostatic interactions and conformational motions in the transfer of an electron from the cytochrome complex Cyt b6f) membrane we developed the model which combines events of proteins Pc diffusion along the thylakoid membrane, electrostatic interactions of Pc with the membrane charges, formation of Pc super-complexes with multienzyme complexes of Photosystem I and to the molecule of the mobile carrier plastocyanin (Pc) in plants, green algae and cyanic bacteria. Taking into account the interior of photosynthetic membrane we developed the model which combines events of proteins Pc diffusion along the thylakoid membrane, electrostatic interactions of Pc with the membrane charges, formation of Pc super-complexes with multienzyme complexes of Photosystem I and Cyt b6f, embedded in photosynthetic membrane, electron transfer and complex dissociation. Multiparticle Brownian simulation method can be used to consider the processes of protein interactions in subcellular systems in order to clarify the role of individual stages and the biophysical mechanisms of these processes.