Photosynthetic Model Membranes of Natural Plant Thylakoid Embedded in a Patterned Polymeric Lipid Bilayer

Thylakoid membranes in the chloroplast of plants, algae, and cyanobacteria are the powerhouse of photosynthesis, capturing solar energy and converting it into chemical energy. Although their structures and functions have been extensively studied, the intrinsically heterogeneous and dynamic nature of the membrane structures is still not fully understood. Investigating native thylakoid membranes in vivo is difficult due to their small size and limited external access to the chloroplast interior, while the bottom-up approaches based on model systems have been hampered by the sheer complexity of the native membrane. Here, we try to fill the gap by reconstituting the whole thylakoid membrane into a patterned substrate-supported planer bilayer. A mixture of thylakoid membrane purified from spinach leaves and synthetic phospholipid 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC) vesicles spontaneously formed a laterally continuous and fluid two-dimensional (2D) membrane in the scaffold of the patterned polymeric bilayer. Chlorophyll fluorescence arising from photosystem II (PSII) recovered after photobleaching, suggesting that the membrane components are laterally mobile. The reversible changes of chlorophyll fluorescence in the presence of the electron acceptors and/or inhibitors indicated that the electron transfer activity of PSII was retained. Furthermore, we confirmed the electron transfer activity of photosystem I (PSI) by observing the generation of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) in the presence of water-soluble ferredoxin and ferredoxin-NADP⁺ reductase. The lateral mobility of membrane-bound molecules and the functional reconstitution of major photosystems provide evidence that our hybrid thylakoid membranes could be an excellent experimental platform to study the 2D molecular organization and machinery of photosynthesis.