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History and Function: The Respiratory and Photosynthetic Electron Transport Chains

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Book cover Bioenergetic Processes of Cyanobacteria

Abstract

The patterns of historical discovery and subsequent progressive understanding of chlorophyll systems and of haem proteins are compared. The electron transport chains of chloroplasts and mitochondria are briefly described and the different experimental and conceptual styles involved in their analysis examined. A role for classical bacterial electron transport studies in integrating our general ideas about electron transport in biological membranes is proposed. Special features of cyanobacterial electron transport involving both light and respiration are discussed. The evolutionary relationships between cytochrome c oxidases in eukaryotes, eubacteria and cyanobacteria are outlined. A general summary scheme linking electron transport in photosynthetic and respiratory chains is put forward.

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Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank Dr. Alison Telfer (Imperial College, London), Dr. Chris Howe (Cambridge), Dr. Derek Bendall (Cambridge) and Dr. Richard Geider (Essex) for helpful discussions and for providing material before publication. I also thank Ms. Julie Double (Essex) for the careful digitizing of the journal figures used to create Fig. 8.7 and Profs. Mike Wilson and Chris Cooper (Essex) for the hospitality of their laboratories which permitted the preparation of this review.

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  1. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Essex, CO4 3SQ, Colchester, Essex, UK

    Peter Nicholls

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Inst. Physikalische Chemie, Molecular Bioenergetics Group, Univ. Wien, Währingerstr. 42, Wien, 1090, Austria

    Guenter A. Peschek

  2. Department für Chemie, Abteilung für Biochemie, Universität für Bodenkultur Wien, Althanstrasse 14, Wien, 1190, Austria

    Christian Obinger

  3. Fak. II Mathematik/Naturwissenschaften, Institut für Chemie, TU Berlin, Straße des 17. Juni 135, Berlin, 10587, Berlin, Germany

    Gernot Renger

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Nicholls, P. (2011). History and Function: The Respiratory and Photosynthetic Electron Transport Chains. In: Peschek, G., Obinger, C., Renger, G. (eds) Bioenergetic Processes of Cyanobacteria. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0388-9_8

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