Photosystem I from Synechococcus elongatus: preparation and crystallization of monomers with varying subunit compositions

Petra Jekow, Petra Fromme, Horst T. Witt, Wolfram Saenger

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

Monomers of Photosystem I (PS I) from the thermophilic cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus were prepared and characterized. Using both the zwitterionic sulfobetain 12 and the nonionic β-dodecyl maltoside as detergents, PS I was extracted in trimeric form from the thylakoid membrane. The trimers dissociate into monomers during gel-filtration, apparently due to a change in the osmotic pressure. The PS I monomer prepared in β-dodecyl maltoside exhibits the same subunit composition as the trimeric PS I. The preparation in sulfobetain 12, however, leads to the removal of the two hydrophobic subunits K and L from the monomer. Further treatment of this sample with sulfobetain 12 detaches the subunits F, J and M, associated with the disappearance of a 706 nun band in the absorption spectrum. Both the PS I monomer with complete subunit composition and the monomer lacking subunits K and L were crystallized using batch and vapor diffusion techniques with poly(ethylene glycol) as the precipitating agent.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)115-120
Number of pages6
JournalBBA - Bioenergetics
Volume1229
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 4 1995
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Crystallization
  • Monomer preparation
  • Photosystem I
  • Subunit composition
  • Thermophilic cyanobacterium

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biophysics
  • Biochemistry
  • Cell Biology

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