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Electron microscopy in structural studies of Photosystem II

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Abstract

Various techniques of electron microscopy (EM) such as ultrathin sectioning, freeze-fracturing, freeze-etching, negative staining and (cryo-)electron crystallography of two-dimensional crystals have been employed, since now, to obtain much of the structural information of the Photosystem II (PS II) pigment–protein complex at both low and high resolution. This review summarizes information about the structure of this membrane complex as well as its arrangement and interactions with the antenna proteins in thylakoid membranes of higher plants and cyanobacteria obtained by means of EM. Results on subunit organization, with the emphasis on the proteins of the oxygen-evolving complex (OEC), are compared with the data obtained by X-ray crystallography of cyanobacterial PS II.

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  1. Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of South Bohemia, Branišovká 31, o[370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic

    Ladislav Bumba

  2. Institute of Plant Molecular Biology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Branišovká 31, 370 05, České Budějovice, Czech Republic

    Franti ek Vácha

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  1. Ladislav Bumba
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Correspondence to Ladislav Bumba.

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Bumba, L., Vácha, F.e. Electron microscopy in structural studies of Photosystem II. Photosynthesis Research 77, 1–19 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1024927631196

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