Funding Organization(s): National Institutes of Health/National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIH/NIGMS), German Research Foundation (DFG), Swedish Research Council, Department of Energy (DOE, United States)
Light-driven oxidation of water to molecular oxygen is catalyzed by the oxygen-evolving complex (OEC) in Photosystem II (PS II). This multi-electron, multi-proton catalysis requires the transport of two water molecules to and four protons from the OEC. A high-resolution 1.89 Å structure obtained by averaging all the S states and refining the data of various time points during the S 2 to S 3 transition has provided better visualization of the potential pathways for substrate water insertion and proton release. Our results indicate that the O1 channel is the likely water intake pathway, and the Cl1 channel is the likely proton release pathway based on the structural rearrangements of water molecules and amino acid side chains along these channels. In particular in the Cl1 channel, we suggest that residue D1-E65 serves as a gate for proton transport by minimizing the back reaction. The results show that the water oxidation reaction at the OEC is well coordinated with the amino acid side chains and the H-bonding network over the entire length of the channels, which is essential in shuttling substrate waters and protons.
Organizational Affiliation:
Institut für Biologie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 10115, Berlin, Germany.
For questions/corrections to specific PDB entries, including citation updates: email deposit-help@mail.wwpdb.org
Thank you for providing your feedback! Someone will be in touch with you shortly. This window will automatically close in 5 seconds.
Apologies, our feedback server is currently unavailable and we are troubleshooting the issue. In the meantime, please copy and paste the below information into an email addressed to info@rcsb.org