10KF
Cryo-EM structure of a chemically treated Cyanobacterial Photosystem I core with bound platinum nanoparticles
Summary for 10KF
| Entry DOI | 10.2210/pdb10kf/pdb |
| EMDB information | 75232 |
| Descriptor | Photosystem I P700 chlorophyll a apoprotein A1, PHYLLOQUINONE, IRON/SULFUR CLUSTER, ... (14 entities in total) |
| Functional Keywords | photosystem, platinum, nanoparticles, biohybrid, photosynthesis |
| Biological source | Synechococcus elongatus PCC 6301 More |
| Total number of polymer chains | 7 |
| Total formula weight | 290433.57 |
| Authors | |
| Primary citation | Emerson, M.D.,Damaraju, S.N.S.,Short, A.H.,Alvord, Z.B.,Palmer, Z.A.,Mehra, H.S.,Brininger, C.M.,Vermaas, J.V.,Utschig, L.M.,Gisriel, C.J. Molecular design principles for Photosystem I-based biohybrid solar fuel catalysts. Biorxiv, 2026 Cited by PubMed Abstract: Direct solar-to-chemical conversion offers a compelling route to clean, dispatchable energy. Photosystem I (PSI), an evolutionarily optimized light-driven oxidoreductase central to oxygenic photosynthesis, can be repurposed for direct solar-fuel production by efficiently coupling its photochemistry to catalysts, thereby storing sunlight as chemical energy in the H-H bond of H2. One promising architecture integrates PSI with Pt nanoparticle (PtNP) catalysts to create photocatalytic PSI-PtNP biohybrids. Advancing these systems requires molecular-level insight into protein-nanoparticle interactions and the bio-nano electron transfer pathways that govern activity; however, progress has been constrained by limited structural data to guide rational design. Here, we present two molecular structures of active PSI-PtNP assemblies that (a) compare thermophilic and mesophilic PSI scaffolds and (b) probe how removal of the terminal [4Fe-4S] clusters and stromal subunits in PSI reshapes protein-nanoparticle interfaces and photocatalysis. Structural analyses and molecular dynamics simulations define the interface topology, electrostatics, and cofactor-to-nanoparticle distances, revealing key molecular features that control biohybrid formation and electron transfer efficiency. These data establish mechanistic links between scaffold composition, bio-nano interface geometry, and catalytic performance, yielding design principles for optimizing PSI-PtNP architectures. The resulting structure-function insights provide a blueprint for engineering PSI-based solar-fuels systems and, more broadly, inform the design of protein-nanomaterial interfaces for light-driven catalysis. PubMed: 41929101DOI: 10.64898/2026.03.23.713776 PDB entries with the same primary citation |
| Experimental method | ELECTRON MICROSCOPY (3.57 Å) |
Structure validation
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