Structural remodelling of photosynthetic membrane complexes

We aim at solving the structure of temporal photosynthetic supercomplexes such as Photosystem I (PSI) and photosystem II (PSII) during steady state and under stress conditions by the cryo EM technique. We will use thylakoid membranes isolated from green algae and higher plants as the source for the membrane complexes. The membranes will be treated by a combination of detergents, developed in our laboratory, and the various complexes will be isolated. We will utilize membranes isolated from temperature-sensitive mutant developed in our laboratory. At permissive temperature the isolated complexes are indistinguishable from the wild-type organism. In the none-permissive temperature the mutated complexes are depleted affecting the structure of the rest complexes. In the PSII temperature-sensitive mutant the organism utilizes exclusively PSI that are organized. This provides an unprecedented opportunity for structural determination of the relevant supercomplexes by the cryo EM technique.