In this section
@article{Consoli:2025:10.1038/s42003-025-08326-y,
author = {Consoli, G and Leong, HF and Davis, GA and Richardson, T and McInnes, A and Murray, JW and Fantuzzi, A and Rutherford, A},
doi = {10.1038/s42003-025-08326-y},
journal = {Communications Biology},
title = {Structure of a stripped-down and tuned-up far-red phycobilisome},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-08326-y},
volume = {8},
year = {2025}
}
TY - JOUR
AB - A diverse subset of cyanobacteria can transiently modify their photosynthetic machinery during far-red light photoacclimation to drive photosynthesis with less energetic photons (700 nm–800 nm). To achieve this, all the main light-driven components of the photosynthetic apparatus, including their allophycocyanin antenna, are replaced with red-shifted paralogues. Recent studies based on the structure of an incomplete complex provided some insights into the tuning of the far-red phycobiliproteins. Here, we solved the structure of the intact bicylindrical allophycocyanin complex from the cyanobacterium Chroococcidiopsis thermalis PCC 7203 at a resolution of 2.51 Å determined by Cryo-electron microscopy single particle analysis. A comparison between conserved structural features in far-red and white light allophycocyanin cores provides insight on the evolutionary adaptations needed to optimize excitation energy transfer in the far-red light adapted photosynthetic apparatus. The reduction in antenna size in far-red photosynthesis suggests a need to optimize membrane packing to increase the number of photosystems and tune the ratio between chlorophyll f molecules and bilin pigments, while the wider spread in the absorption range of the bilins suggests faster and more efficient excitation energy transfer to far-red Photosystem II by limiting backflow of excitation from the reaction centres to the far-red bilin pigments.
AU - Consoli,G
AU - Leong,HF
AU - Davis,GA
AU - Richardson,T
AU - McInnes,A
AU - Murray,JW
AU - Fantuzzi,A
AU - Rutherford,A
DO - 10.1038/s42003-025-08326-y
PY - 2025///
SN - 2399-3642
TI - Structure of a stripped-down and tuned-up far-red phycobilisome
T2 - Communications Biology
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s42003-025-08326-y
UR - https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-025-08326-y
VL - 8
ER -
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