Taking Snapshots of Photosynthetic Water Oxidation Using Femtosecond X-ray Diffraction and Spectroscopy

The dioxygen we breathe is formed by light-induced oxidation of water in photosystem II. O2 formation takes place at a catalytic manganese cluster within milliseconds after the photosystem II reaction centre is excited by three single-turnover flashes. Here we present combined X-ray emission spectra and diffraction data of 2-flash (2F) and 3-flash (3F) photosystem II samples, and of a transient 3F’ state (250 μs after the third flash), collected under functional conditions using an X-ray free electron laser. The spectra show that the initial O–O bond formation, coupled to Mn reduction, does not yet occur within 250 μs after the third flash. Diffraction data of all states studied exhibit an anomalous scattering signal from Mn but show no significant structural changes at the present resolution of 4.5 Å. This study represents the initial frames in a molecular movie of the structural changes during the catalytic reaction in photosystem II. Photosystem II is the biosynthetic machinery that allows the conversion of water to oxygen using light. Here, the authors combine X-ray emission and diffraction data to probe the structural changes that take place during photosystem II catalysis.

• Publication year

  2014

• Venue

  Nature Communications

• Publication date

  2014-06-14

• Fields of study

  Materials Science, Physics, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1038/ncomms5371PMID 25006873PMCID 4151126
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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