Organisation, dynamics and biogenesis of a photosynthetic membrane

光合膜的组织、动力学和生物发生

• 批准号: BB/R003890/1
• 负责人: Luning Liu
• 金额: $ 61.38万
• 依托单位: University of Liverpool
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2018 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FR003890%2F1
• 关键词: Organisation; dynamics; biogenesis; photosynthetic; membrane

Cyanobacteria are the oldest microorganisms that grow by photosynthesis in a similar way to plants. Cyanobacteria are widespread in our environment on Earth. For example, they are very abundant in rivers, lakes, and the oceans, and they make important contributions to the sustainable ecology of the planet. There are increasing interests in using cyanobacteria as possible sources of 'biofuels'. We may eventually be able to modify cyanobacteria to build new artificial cell "factories" that can use the energy of sunlight to produce fuels such as hydrogen. Cyanobacteria have a more complex cell structure than most bacteria. Inside the cells are the thylakoid membranes, a complex internal membrane system which is the site of the 'light reactions' of photosynthesis. The thylakoid membranes contain the pigments that absorb energy from sunlight and the proteins that carry out the first steps in converting solar energy to stored chemical energy. Although we now have a great deal of knowledge about the photosynthetic protein modules, we know rather little about how the thylakoid membranes are generated in nature. We propose to investigate this question using a 'model' cyanobacterium that can easily be genetically modified and have a regular shape of thylakoid membranes. We will first control the ability of cyanobacterial cells to produce thylakoid membranes. By switching the generation of thylakoid membranes in the cell and tagging the photosynthetic proteins with fluorescence, we will be able to watch in detail how proteins are synthesised and integrated into the thylakoid membrane during the membrane construction process using optical microscopy. To get more details on how the photosynthetic proteins are distributed in the thylakoid membrane, we will use a high-resolution microscope to scan the thylakoid membrane surface in order to determine individual proteins and their locations during the development of thylakoid membranes. The second section of this programme is to study how photosynthetic proteins interact with each other in the thylakoid membrane, which is important for their energy-transducing functions. For this purpose, we will label the proteins with different fluorescent tags and watch how different proteins move and assemble with others in the cell. We will also purify the protein complexes from cells and examine the protein composition of these complexes using biochemical techniques. Furthermore, we will also learn how the lipid molecules play roles in the formation and function of the thylakoid membrane, by extracting the lipids from the thylakoid membranes isolated from different development stages and identifying the lipid composition and content. If we can gain advanced understanding as to how thylakoid membranes are assembled we will be in a better position to modify the thylakoid membrane function, for example, to produce hydrogen from solar energy. In the long-term we may even be able to induce the production of similar membrane systems in different kinds of bacteria, giving us a new tool for the generation of microbial 'cell factories'.

蓝细菌是最古老的微生物，以类似于植物的方式通过光合作用生长。蓝细菌广泛存在于地球环境中。例如，它们在河流、湖泊和海洋中非常丰富，它们为地球的可持续生态做出了重要贡献。越来越多的人对利用蓝藻作为“生物燃料”的可能来源感兴趣。我们也许最终能够改造蓝藻，建造新的人造细胞“工厂”，利用太阳能生产氢等燃料。蓝藻比大多数细菌具有更复杂的细胞结构。细胞内部是类囊体膜，这是一个复杂的内部膜系统，是光合作用“光反应”的场所。类囊体膜含有从阳光中吸收能量的色素和蛋白质，蛋白质执行将太阳能转化为储存的化学能的第一步。虽然我们现在对光合作用蛋白模块有了大量的了解，但我们对自然界中类囊体膜是如何产生的却知之甚少。我们建议调查这个问题，使用一个“模型”蓝藻，可以很容易地进行遗传修饰，并有一个规则形状的类囊体膜。我们将首先控制蓝藻细胞产生类囊体膜的能力。通过切换细胞中类囊体膜的生成并用荧光标记光合蛋白，我们将能够使用光学显微镜详细观察蛋白质是如何合成并整合到膜构建过程中的类囊体膜中的。为了更详细地了解光合作用蛋白质在类囊体膜中的分布，我们将使用高分辨率显微镜扫描类囊体膜表面，以确定单个蛋白质及其在类囊体膜发育过程中的位置。该计划的第二部分是研究光合蛋白如何在类囊体膜中相互作用，这对它们的能量转换功能很重要。为此，我们将用不同的荧光标签标记蛋白质，并观察不同的蛋白质如何在细胞中移动和组装。我们还将从细胞中纯化蛋白质复合物，并使用生物化学技术检查这些复合物的蛋白质组成。此外，我们还将通过从不同发育阶段分离的类囊体膜中提取脂质并鉴定脂质的组成和含量，了解脂质分子在类囊体膜的形成和功能中的作用。如果我们能够进一步了解类囊体膜是如何组装的，我们将能够更好地改变类囊体膜的功能，例如，从太阳能中产生氢气。从长远来看，我们甚至可以在不同种类的细菌中诱导产生类似的膜系统，为我们提供一种新的工具来产生微生物“细胞工厂”。

项目成果

Molecular simulations unravel the molecular principles that mediate selective permeability of carboxysome shell protein

分子模拟揭示了介导羧基体壳蛋白选择性渗透的分子原理

• DOI: 10.1101/2020.06.14.151241
• 发表时间: 2020
• 作者: Faulkner M

Insights into the Origin of Distinct Medin Fibril Morphologies Induced by Incubation Conditions and Seeding.

• DOI: 10.3390/ijms19051357
• 发表时间: 2018-05-03
• 期刊: International journal of molecular sciences
• 影响因子: 5.6
• 作者: Davies HA;Lee CF;Miller L;Liu LN;Madine J
• 通讯作者: Madine J

Cryo-EM structure of a monomeric RC-LH1-PufX supercomplex with high-carotenoid content from Rhodobacter capsulatus

• DOI: 10.1016/j.str.2023.01.006
• 发表时间: 2023-03-02
• 期刊: STRUCTURE
• 影响因子: 5.7
• 作者: Bracun, Laura;Yamagata, Atsushi;Liu, Lu-Ning
• 通讯作者: Liu, Lu-Ning

Molecular simulations unravel the molecular principles that mediate selective permeability of carboxysome shell protein.

• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-74536-5
• 发表时间: 2020-10-15
• 期刊: Scientific reports
• 影响因子: 4.6
• 作者: Faulkner M;Szabó I;Weetman SL;Sicard F;Huber RG;Bond PJ;Rosta E;Liu LN
• 通讯作者: Liu LN

Incorporation of Functional Rubisco Activases into Engineered Carboxysomes to Enhance Carbon Fixation.

• DOI: 10.1021/acssynbio.1c00311
• 发表时间: 2022-01-21
• 期刊: ACS synthetic biology
• 影响因子: 4.7
• 作者: Chen T;Fang Y;Jiang Q;Dykes GF;Lin Y;Price GD;Long BM;Liu LN
• 通讯作者: Liu LN