Queen Mary University of London

报告人简介：

Professor Alexander Ruban is a professor in Biophysics and holds a 'Professeur des Universites title by the French Ministry of Education. He obtained his PhD at the Institute of Plant Physiology at the Academy of Sciences of the Ukraine. His research has been instrumental in the discovery of the molecular basis of photoprotection in LHCII and the in vivo configuration and dynamics of higher plant xanthophylls in the thylakoid membrane. His Laboratory at the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences at Queen Mary University of London focuses on the molecular mechanisms of light energy utilisation and management in the photosynthetic membrane.He has received the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award and the title of Fellow of The Royal Society of Biology (FRSB).

报告摘要：

This talk focuses on the process that protects the photosynthetic membrane of oxygenic photosynthetic organisms from damage due to high light intensity. This protective mechanism is monitored using chlorophyll fluorescence measurements and is known as non-photochemical quenching (NPQ), with its major component, qE. The latter is triggered by the proton gradient across the thylakoid membrane. This presentation will explore the site of qE formation, the allosteric regulation of qE, and the mechanisms driving the conformational changes that establish the energy-dissipating state. The role of PsbS protein in enabling qE will also be discussed. I will argue that the site of qE formation is the LHCII trimer and that qE formation involves hydrophobic mismatch between LHCII and surrounding lipids, triggered by PsbS. This mismatch induces conformational changes in LHCII, leading to the formation of the qE quencher. Future research should focus on achieving high-resolution LHCII structures within the membrane, investigating the functional domains of PsbS, examining the dynamics of violaxanthin and zeaxanthin within LHCII, and uncovering the precise nature of the qE quencher.

地点：中国科学院物理研究所M楼236会议室

邀请人：翁羽翔（8264 8118）

联系人：胡颖（8264 9361）