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Updated: Jul 25, 2025

In Vitro Reconstitution of Light-harvesting Complexes of Plants and Green Algae
Published on: October 10, 2014
Structural diversity and modularity of photosynthetic RC-LH1 complexes
Lu-Ning Liu1, Laura Bracun2, Mei Li3
1Institute of Systems, Molecular and Integrative Biology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZB, UK; College of Marine Life Sciences and Frontiers Science Center for Deep Ocean Multispheres and Earth System, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, China.
Abstract:
Bacterial photosynthesis is essential for sustaining life on Earth as it aids in carbon assimilation, atmospheric composition, and ecosystem maintenance. Many bacteria utilize anoxygenic photosynthesis to convert sunlight into chemical energy while producing organic matter. The core machinery of anoxygenic photosynthesis performed by purple photosynthetic bacteria and Chloroflexales is the reaction center-light-harvesting 1 (RC-LH1) pigment-protein supercomplex. In this review, we discuss recent structural studies of RC-LH1 core complexes based on the advancement in structural biology techniques. These studies have provided fundamental insights into the assembly mechanisms, structural variations, and modularity of RC-LH1 complexes across different bacterial species, highlighting their functional adaptability. Understanding the natural architectures of RC-LH1 complexes will facilitate the design and engineering of artificial photosynthetic systems, which can enhance photosynthetic efficiency and potentially find applications in sustainable energy production and carbon capture.
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