0000000000066682
AUTHOR
A. Mallardi
Incorporation of the bacterial reaction centre into dendrimersomes
For the first time the ability of the first generation dendrimer belonging to the family of polyester-benzylether, (3,5)12G1-PE-BMPA-(OH)4, to form dendrimersomes is presented together with their capability to reconstitute the integral membrane protein complex called Reaction Centre (RC) purified from the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides. Size, polydispersity and time stability of the empty and protein containing dendrimersomes are presented together with the photochemical activity of the guest protein. The RC presence appears to strongly enhance the self-assembly properties of the Janus dendrimer, leading to the formation of proteo-dendrimersomes showing a photochemical act…
The coupling between electron transfer and protein dynamics in the bacterial photosynthetic reaction center: trapping of conformational substates in room temperature amorphous matrices
The photosynthetic reaction center (RC) from purple bacteria is becoming a prototype in exploring the coupling between internal protein motions and long-range electron transfer (ET). This interplay has been extensively investigated by hampering RC substate interconversion and relaxations at low temperatures (McMahon et al., 1998, Biophys. J. 74, 2567). As a complementary approach for limiting RC dynamics at room temperature we embedded the protein within a dehydrated trehalose matrix. Spectroscopic studies and molecular dynamics simulations performed on myoglobin/trehalose/water systems have shown that the nonharmonic contributions to the protein motions (attributed to thermal fluctuations …