3-D structures of the major components of a photosynthetic membrane

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Nearly all life on Earth gets the food and oxygen it needs from plants, or from simpler, bacterial photosynthetic organisms that live in oceans, lakes and ponds. These bacteria are ideal for research as they are easy to grow and study. This is essential if we are to understand the makeup of the protein-chlorophyll complexes that sit in a membrane and capture light (the LH complexes) and convert it into chemical energy (the RC complexes) that can be used to power living cells. We have already used a form of imaging called atomic force microscopy to literally 'feel' the shapes of the LH and RC protein-chlorophyll complexes in the living membrane, and to see the networks they form that act as a 'satellite dish' to harvest solar energy. We have removed these complexes from the membrane and have made 3D crystals from them, and if we could make crystals of better quality we could see the atomic details of the way that the proteins and chlorophylls harvest solar energy, transmit it between them, and then convert it to electrical energy. All these processes are extremely efficient in nature, and we have a lot to learn from them if we are to design man-made solar energy devices. This application seeks funding to make better crystals and to use them to find out how protein chlorophyll complexes harvest solar energy.