Functional Reconstitution of Photosynthetic Reaction Centre Complexes from Rhodopseudomonas Palustris

Abstract

Reconstitution is a powerful technique in the elucidation of the mechanisms involved in membrane associated biological energy transduction (see for example Racker & Stoeckenius, 1974). For proton motive force (transmembrane electrochemical proton gradient) generation in reconstituted systems several pumps are available (Driessen et al., 1987). Light-driven pumps could have important experimental advantages over chemically driven pumps, since pumping rates, and thereby electrochemical forces, can be simply controlled with light intensity. However until recently the only light-driven pump available, bacteriorhodopsin, reconstitutes in a scrambled orientation and generally generates an inside positive proton motive force.