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Exploiting the photoactivity of bacterial reaction center to investigate liposome dynamics

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Abstract

Charge recombination kinetics of bacterial photosynthetic protein Reaction Center displays an exquisite sensitivity to the actual occupancy of ubiquinone-10 in its QB-binding site. Here, we have exploited such phenomenon for assessing the growth and the aggregation/fusion of phosphocholine vesicles embedding RC in their membrane, when treated with sodium oleate.

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Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Notes

  1. Aggregation and fusion can happen because of the propensity of oleic acid molecules, formed by OL protonation, to self-assemble as non-lamellar inverted hexagonal structures, which can be fusogenic. At even lower pH, oleic acid separates as oil droplets [30].

  2. In principle, in addition to fusion and aggregation, RC and/or Q could be shuttled between different vesicles by hydrophobic oleic acid/oleate-based carriers.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Massimo Trotta (Institute for Physical and Chemical Processes, CNR-Bari, Italy) for helpful discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Università Degli Studi Di Bari “Aldo Moro”, Via Orabona 4, 70125, Bari, Italy

    Emiliano Altamura & Fabio Mavelli

  2. Institute of Science of Food Production (ISPA), CNR, Str. Provinciale Lecce-Monteroni, 73100, Lecce, Italy

    Francesco Milano

  3. Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Technologies (DiSTeBA), University of Salento, Str. Provinciale Lecce-Monteroni, 73100, Lecce, Italy

    Pasquale Stano

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  1. Emiliano Altamura
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Correspondence to Fabio Mavelli.

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Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

43630_2021_11_MOESM1_ESM.docx

Electronic Supplementary Information (ESI) available: RC charge recombinationmechanism; liposome preparation and composition; S value calculation; kineticspectrometer description. See DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/x0xx00000x (DOCX 178 KB)

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Altamura, E., Milano, F., Stano, P. et al. Exploiting the photoactivity of bacterial reaction center to investigate liposome dynamics. Photochem Photobiol Sci 20, 321–326 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43630-021-00011-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43630-021-00011-3

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