biostudies-literatureMothersole DJEuropean Research CouncilU.S. Department of Energy, Office of SciencePARC'sBBSRC doctoral studentshipPhotosynthetic Antenna Research Center (PARC)Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC UK)Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council307-27https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC4949548biostudies-literatureUnknown99(2)The mature architecture of the photosynthetic membrane of the purple phototroph Rhodobacter sphaeroides has been characterised to a level where an atomic-level membrane model is available, but the roles of the putative assembly proteins LhaA and PucC in establishing this architecture are unknown. Here we investigate the assembly of light-harvesting LH2 and reaction centre-light-harvesting1-PufX (RC-LH1-PufX) photosystem complexes using spectroscopy, pull-downs, native gel electrophoresis, quantitative mass spectrometry and fluorescence lifetime microscopy to characterise a series of lhaA and pucC mutants. LhaA and PucC are important for specific assembly of LH1 or LH2 complexes, respectively, but they are not essential; the few LH1 subunits found in ΔlhaA mutants assemble to form normal RCMolecular microbiologyPucC and LhaA direct efficient assembly of the light-harvesting complexes in Rhodobacter sphaeroides.PMC4949548BB/M000265/1BB/G021546/1338895DE-SC 0001035Hunter CNBrindley AAJackson PJTucker JDVasilev CDickman MJMothersole DJfalsePucC and LhaA direct efficient assembly of the light-harvesting complexes in Rhodobacter sphaeroides.The mature architecture of the photosynthetic membrane of the purple phototroph Rhodobacter sphaeroides has been characterised to a level where an atomic-level membrane model is available, but the roles of the putative assembly proteins LhaA and PucC in establishing this architecture are unknown. Here we investigate the assembly of light-harvesting LH2 and reaction centre-light-harvesting1-PufX (RC-LH1-PufX) photosystem complexes using spectroscopy, pull-downs, native gel electrophoresis, quantitative mass spectrometry and fluorescence lifetime microscopy to characterise a series of lhaA and pucC mutants. LhaA and PucC are important for specific assembly of LH1 or LH2 complexes, respectively, but they are not essential; the few LH1 subunits found in ΔlhaA mutants assemble to form normal RC2016-01-01T00:00:00Z2016 Jan2025-04-04T21:51:39.443Z2019-03-27T02:18:41ZS-EPMC49495482641921910.1111/mmi.13235