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Singharoy A, Maffeo C, Delgado-Magnero KH, Swainsbury DJK, Sener M, Kleinekathöfer U, Vant JW, Nguyen J, Hitchcock A, Isralewitz B, Teo I, Chandler DE, Stone JE, Phillips JC, Pogorelov TV, Mallus MI, Chipot C, Luthey-Schulten Z, Tieleman DP, Hunter CN, Tajkhorshid E, Aksimentiev A, Schulten K. Atoms to Phenotypes: Molecular Design Principles of Cellular Energy Metabolism. Cell 2019; 179:1098-1111.e23. [PMID: 31730852 PMCID: PMC7075482 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.10.021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 105] [Impact Index Per Article: 21.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/27/2019] [Revised: 09/04/2019] [Accepted: 10/21/2019] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Abstract
We report a 100-million atom-scale model of an entire cell organelle, a photosynthetic chromatophore vesicle from a purple bacterium, that reveals the cascade of energy conversion steps culminating in the generation of ATP from sunlight. Molecular dynamics simulations of this vesicle elucidate how the integral membrane complexes influence local curvature to tune photoexcitation of pigments. Brownian dynamics of small molecules within the chromatophore probe the mechanisms of directional charge transport under various pH and salinity conditions. Reproducing phenotypic properties from atomistic details, a kinetic model evinces that low-light adaptations of the bacterium emerge as a spontaneous outcome of optimizing the balance between the chromatophore's structural integrity and robust energy conversion. Parallels are drawn with the more universal mitochondrial bioenergetic machinery, from whence molecular-scale insights into the mechanism of cellular aging are inferred. Together, our integrative method and spectroscopic experiments pave the way to first-principles modeling of whole living cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- Abhishek Singharoy
- School of Molecular Sciences, Center for Applied Structural Discovery, Arizona State University at Tempe, Tempe, AZ 85282, USA.
| | - Christopher Maffeo
- Department of Physics, NSF Center for the Physics of Living Cells, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA; Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
| | - Karelia H Delgado-Magnero
- Centre for Molecular Simulation and Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada
| | - David J K Swainsbury
- Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK
| | - Melih Sener
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
| | - Ulrich Kleinekathöfer
- Department of Physics and Earth Sciences, Jacobs University Bremen, 28759 Bremen, Germany
| | - John W Vant
- School of Molecular Sciences, Center for Applied Structural Discovery, Arizona State University at Tempe, Tempe, AZ 85282, USA
| | - Jonathan Nguyen
- School of Molecular Sciences, Center for Applied Structural Discovery, Arizona State University at Tempe, Tempe, AZ 85282, USA
| | - Andrew Hitchcock
- Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK
| | - Barry Isralewitz
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
| | - Ivan Teo
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
| | - Danielle E Chandler
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
| | - John E Stone
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
| | - James C Phillips
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
| | - Taras V Pogorelov
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA; Department of Chemistry, School of Chemical Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA; Center for Biophysics and Quantitative Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA; National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
| | - M Ilaria Mallus
- Department of Physics and Earth Sciences, Jacobs University Bremen, 28759 Bremen, Germany
| | - Christophe Chipot
- Department of Physics, NSF Center for the Physics of Living Cells, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA; Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA; Laboratoire International Associé CNRS-UIUC, UMR 7019, Université de Lorraine, 54506 Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France
| | - Zaida Luthey-Schulten
- Department of Physics, NSF Center for the Physics of Living Cells, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA; Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA; Department of Chemistry, School of Chemical Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA; Center for Biophysics and Quantitative Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
| | - D Peter Tieleman
- Centre for Molecular Simulation and Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada
| | - C Neil Hunter
- Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK.
| | - Emad Tajkhorshid
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA; Center for Biophysics and Quantitative Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA; Departments of Biochemistry, Chemistry, Bioengineering, and Pharmacology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
| | - Aleksei Aksimentiev
- Department of Physics, NSF Center for the Physics of Living Cells, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA; Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA; Center for Biophysics and Quantitative Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
| | - Klaus Schulten
- Department of Physics, NSF Center for the Physics of Living Cells, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA; Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
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Hitchcock A, Hunter CN, Sener M. Determination of Cell Doubling Times from the Return-on-Investment Time of Photosynthetic Vesicles Based on Atomic Detail Structural Models. J Phys Chem B 2017; 121:3787-3797. [PMID: 28301162 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.6b12335] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Cell doubling times of the purple bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides during photosynthetic growth are determined experimentally and computationally as a function of illumination. For this purpose, energy conversion processes in an intracytoplasmic membrane vesicle, the chromatophore, are described based on an atomic detail structural model. The cell doubling time and its illumination dependence are computed in terms of the return-on-investment (ROI) time of the chromatophore, determined computationally from the ATP production rate, and the mass ratio of chromatophores in the cell, determined experimentally from whole cell absorbance spectra. The ROI time is defined as the time it takes to produce enough ATP to pay for the construction of another chromatophore. The ROI time of the low light-growth chromatophore is 4.5-2.6 h for a typical illumination range of 10-100 μmol photons m-2 s-1, respectively, with corresponding cell doubling times of 8.2-3.9 h. When energy expenditure is considered as a currency, the benefit-to-cost ratio computed for the chromatophore as an energy harvesting device is 2-8 times greater than for photovoltaic and fossil fuel-based energy solutions and the corresponding ROI times are approximately 3-4 orders of magnitude shorter for the chromatophore than for synthetic systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew Hitchcock
- Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of Sheffield , Sheffield S10 2TN, U.K
| | - C Neil Hunter
- Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of Sheffield , Sheffield S10 2TN, U.K
| | - Melih Sener
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States.,Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , Urbana, Illinois 61801, United States
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Sener M, Strumpfer J, Singharoy A, Hunter CN, Schulten K. Overall energy conversion efficiency of a photosynthetic vesicle. eLife 2016; 5. [PMID: 27564854 PMCID: PMC5001839 DOI: 10.7554/elife.09541] [Citation(s) in RCA: 53] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2015] [Accepted: 07/11/2016] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
The chromatophore of purple bacteria is an intracellular spherical vesicle that exists in numerous copies in the cell and that efficiently converts sunlight into ATP synthesis, operating typically under low light conditions. Building on an atomic-level structural model of a low-light-adapted chromatophore vesicle from Rhodobacter sphaeroides, we investigate the cooperation between more than a hundred protein complexes in the vesicle. The steady-state ATP production rate as a function of incident light intensity is determined after identifying quinol turnover at the cytochrome bc1 complex (cytbc1) as rate limiting and assuming that the quinone/quinol pool of about 900 molecules acts in a quasi-stationary state. For an illumination condition equivalent to 1% of full sunlight, the vesicle exhibits an ATP production rate of 82 ATP molecules/s. The energy conversion efficiency of ATP synthesis at illuminations corresponding to 1%–5% of full sunlight is calculated to be 0.12–0.04, respectively. The vesicle stoichiometry, evolutionarily adapted to the low light intensities in the habitat of purple bacteria, is suboptimal for steady-state ATP turnover for the benefit of protection against over-illumination. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.09541.001 Photosynthesis, or the conversion of light energy into chemical energy, is a process that powers almost all life on Earth. Plants and certain bacteria share similar processes to perform photosynthesis, though the purple bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides uses a photosynthetic system that is much less complex than that in plants. Light harvesting inside the bacterium takes place in up to hundreds of compartments called chromatophores. Each chromatophore in turn contains hundreds of cooperating proteins that together absorb the energy of sunlight and convert and store it in molecules of ATP, the universal energy currency of all cells. The chromatophore of primitive purple bacteria provides a model for more complex photosynthetic systems in plants. Though researchers had characterized its individual components over the years, less was known about the overall architecture of the chromatophore and how its many components work together to harvest light energy efficiently and robustly. This knowledge would provide insight into the evolutionary pressures that shaped the chromatophore and its ability to work efficiently at different light intensities. Sener et al. now present a highly detailed structural model of the chromatophore of purple bacteria based on the findings of earlier studies. The model features the position of every atom of the constituent proteins and is used to examine how energy is transferred and converted. Sener et al. describe the sequence of energy conversion steps and calculate the overall energy conversion efficiency, namely how much of the light energy arriving at the microorganism is stored as ATP. These calculations show that the chromatophore is optimized to produce chemical energy at low light levels typical of purple bacterial habitats, and dissipate excess energy to avoid being damaged under brighter light. The chromatophore’s architecture also displays robustness against perturbations of its components. In the future, the approach used by Sener et al. to describe light harvesting in this bacterial compartment can be applied to more complex systems, such as those in plants. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.09541.002
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Affiliation(s)
- Melih Sener
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, United States.,Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, United States
| | - Johan Strumpfer
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, United States.,Center for Biophysics and Computational Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, United States
| | - Abhishek Singharoy
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, United States
| | - C Neil Hunter
- Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom
| | - Klaus Schulten
- Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, United States.,Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, United States.,Center for Biophysics and Computational Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, United States
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