The non-bilayer lipid MGDG stabilizes the major light-harvesting complex (LHCII) against unfolding.

ABSTRACT: In the photosynthetic apparatus of plants a high proportion of LHCII protein is needed to integrate 50% non-bilayer lipid MGDG into the lamellar thylakoid membrane, but whether and how the stability of the protein is also affected is not known. Here we use single-molecule force spectroscopy to map the stability of LHCII against mechanical unfolding along the polypeptide chain as a function of oligomerization state and lipid composition. Comparing unfolding forces between monomeric and trimeric LHCII demonstrates that the stability does not increase significantly upon trimerization but can mainly be correlated with specific contact sites between adjacent monomers. In contrast, unfolding of trimeric complexes in membranes composed of different thylakoid lipids reveals that the non-bilayer li

SUBMITTER: Seiwert D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5505961 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature