Mechanism and Macromolecular Organization in Photosynthetic Reaction Centers

初始电荷机制的生物物理研究 光合反应中心（RC）的分离步骤将 请继续。 RC的X射线结构测定 已经将注意力集中在 高效电子转移的机制， 发色团-蛋白质组装。 光诱导电子转移 生成一个中间体，它是一个自由基对， 电偶极矩 这两个特点使得 通过施加磁场和磁场来操纵反应动力学， 电场，分别。 初始电荷分离和能量存储步骤 光合作用发生在膜结合的叶绿素中， 蛋白质复合体称为光合反应中心。 的 RC是最小的可隔离单元， 光合作用的电荷分离步骤。三维 两种紫色无硫RC的结构 细菌在过去已经被确定为原子分辨率 几年 虽然大量的光谱和 动力学数据已获得之前的晶体结构， 解决了，所有的原子坐标的可用性 反应性组分及其溶剂激发了巨大的 有兴趣了解RC的基本物理学 功能

Biophysical studies of the mechanism of the initial charge separation steps in photosynthetic reaction centers (RC) will be continued. The recent X-ray structure determinations of RCs from two bacterial species has focused attention on the molecular mechanism of highly efficient electron transfer in this chromophore-protein assembly. Photoinduced electron transfer generates an intermediate which is a radical pair and has a large electric dipole moment. These two characteristics make possible the manipulation of the reaction dynamics by applied magnetic and electric fields, respectively. The initial charge separation and energy storage steps in photosynthesis take place in a membrane bound chlorophyll- protein complex called the photosynthetic reaction center. The RC is the smallest isolatable unit which carries out the initial charge separation steps of photosynthesis. The three dimensional structure of the RC from two species of purple non-sulfur bacteria have been determined to atomic resolution in the past several years. Although a great deal of spectroscopic and kinetic data had been obtained before the crystal structure was solved, the availability of the atomic coordinates of all the reactive components and their solvent has stimulated great interest in understanding the underlying physics of the RC function.