ISIS Neutron and Muon Source Data Journal

Towards a realistic model of bacterial photosynthetic membranes

Abstract: Light harvesting proteins, such as LH2, are responsible for the adsorption of light in photosynthetic organisms. Supported lipid bilayers (SLBs) present a way to model excitation transfer in whole membranes but, as typically formed on solid substrates (resting on a thin cushion of water), do not allow the incorporation of mobile transmembrane proteins. We have developed a new approach to this problem that uses biocompatible polymer brushes as a surrogate for the ?interior? of the chromatophore vesicle. SLBs formed on polymer brushes demonstrated high mobility, approaching that of native membranes, suggesting that the membrane exists in a quasi-natural state. However, no structural measurements of these SLBs have been made. We wish to interrogate the structure of photosynthetic membranes formed on solid substrates and anchored to polymer brushes.

Principal Investigator: Dr Edwin Johnson
Local Contact: Dr Stephen Hall
Experimenter: Dr Demetris Bates
Experimenter: Professor Graham Leggett
Experimenter: Mr Owen Gardner

DOI: 10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2410276

ISIS Experiment Number: RB2410276

Publisher: STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source

Data format: RAW/Nexus
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Data Citation

The recommended format for citing this dataset in a research publication is as:
[author], [date], [title], [publisher], [doi]

For Example:
Dr Edwin Johnson et al; (2024): Towards a realistic model of bacterial photosynthetic membranes, STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2410276

Data is released under the CC-BY-4.0 license.