Tuning the photoexcitation response of cyanobacterial Photosystem I via reconstitution into Proteoliposomes.

The role of natural thylakoid membrane housing of Photosystem I (PSI), the transmembrane photosynthetic protein, in its robust photoactivated charge separation with near unity quantum efficiency is not fundamentally understood. To this end, incorporation of suitable protein scaffolds for PSI incorporation is of great scientific and device manufacturing interest. Areas of interest include solid state bioelectronics, and photoelectrochemical devices that require bio-abio interfaces that do not compromise the photoactivity and photostability of PSI.

Lipid-Detergent Phase Transitions During Detergent-Mediated Liposome Solubilization.

We investigate the phase transition stages for detergent-mediated liposome solubilization of bio-mimetic membranes with the motivation of integrating membrane-bound Photosystem I into bio-hybrid opto-electronic devices. To this end, the interaction of two non-ionic detergents n-dodecyl-β-D-maltoside (DDM) and Triton X-100 (TX-100) with two types of phospholipids, namely DPhPC (1,2-diphytanoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine) and DPPG (1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phospho-(1'-rac-glycerol)), are examined. Specifically, solubilization processes for large unilamellar liposomes are studied with the aid of turbidity measurements, dynamic light scattering, and cryo-transmission electron microscopy imaging.

Elucidating the role of methyl viologen as a scavenger of photoactivated electrons from photosystem I under aerobic and anaerobic conditions.

We present detailed electrochemical investigations into the role of dissolved O2 in electrolyte solutions in scavenging photoactivated electrons from a uniform photosystem I (PS I) monolayer assembled on alkanethiolate SAM (self-assembled monolayer)/Au surfaces while using methyl viologen (MV(2+)) as the redox mediator. To this end, we report results for direct measurements of light induced photocurrent from uniform monolayer assemblies of PS I on C9 alkanethiolate SAM/Au surfaces. These measurements, apart from demonstrating the ability of dissolved O2 in the electrolyte medium to act as an electron scavenger, also reveal its essential role in driving the solution-phase methyl viologen to initiate light-induced directional electron transfer from an electron donor surface (Au) via surface assembled PS I trimers.