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Updated: Jul 31, 2026

In Vitro Reconstitution of Light-harvesting Complexes of Plants and Green Algae
Published on: October 10, 2014
Synthetic phytanyl-chained glycolipid vesicle membrane as a novel matrix for functional reconstitution of
1Department of Polymer Physics, National Institute of Materials and Chemical Research (NIMC), 1-1 Higashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8565, Japan.
Abstract:
The vesicles composed of synthetic phytanyl-chained glycolipid and natural sulfoquinovosyldiacylglycerol at 9:1 molar ratio were successfully applied to functional reconstitution of photosystem II complex (PS II) from a thermophilic cyanobacterium. The synthetic glycolipid employed was one of our model archaeal diether lipids, 1, 3-di-O-phytanyl-2-O-(beta-D-maltotriosyl)glycerol. The light-induced oxygen-evolving activity of PS II reconstituted in the glycolipid vesicles was approximately 6-fold higher than that reconstituted in several phosphatidylcholine vesicles. The present results reveal the first evidence that a well-designed synthetic glycolipid is effective for the functional reconstitution of complicated and labile membrane protein complexes, such as PS II.
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