Serial femtosecond crystallography

TRM Barends, B Stauch, V Cherezov… - Nature reviews Methods …, 2022 - nature.com
With the advent of X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs), new, high-throughput serial
crystallography techniques for macromolecular structure determination have emerged …

Solar energy conversion by photosystem II: principles and structures

D Shevela, JF Kern, G Govindjee, J Messinger - Photosynthesis research, 2023 - Springer
Photosynthetic water oxidation by Photosystem II (PSII) is a fascinating process because it
sustains life on Earth and serves as a blue print for scalable synthetic catalysts required for …

Structural evidence for intermediates during O2 formation in photosystem II

A Bhowmick, R Hussein, I Bogacz, PS Simon… - Nature, 2023 - nature.com
In natural photosynthesis, the light-driven splitting of water into electrons, protons and
molecular oxygen forms the first step of the solar-to-chemical energy conversion process …

Advances and challenges in time-resolved macromolecular crystallography

G Brändén, R Neutze - Science, 2021 - science.org
BACKGROUND Conformational changes are essential for the correct functioning of
biological macromolecules. Time-resolved x-ray crystallography extends an extremely …

Water networks in photosystem II using crystalline molecular dynamics simulations and room-temperature XFEL serial crystallography

MD Doyle, A Bhowmick, DC Wych… - Journal of the …, 2023 - ACS Publications
Structural dynamics of water and its hydrogen-bonding networks play an important role in
enzyme function via the transport of protons, ions, and substrates. To gain insights into these …

Alternative Mechanism for O2 Formation in Natural Photosynthesis via Nucleophilic Oxo–Oxo Coupling

Y Guo, J Messinger, L Kloo, L Sun - Journal of the American …, 2023 - ACS Publications
O2 formation in photosystem II (PSII) is a vital event on Earth, but the exact mechanism
remains unclear. The presently prevailing theoretical model is “radical coupling”(RC) …

High-resolution cryo-electron microscopy structure of photosystem II from the mesophilic cyanobacterium, Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803

CJ Gisriel, J Wang, J Liu, DA Flesher… - Proceedings of the …, 2022 - National Acad Sciences
Photosystem II (PSII) enables global-scale, light-driven water oxidation. Genetic
manipulation of PSII from the mesophilic cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 has …

Designing neighboring-site activation of single atom via tunnel ions for boosting acidic oxygen evolution

Y Hao, SF Hung, L Wang, L Deng, WJ Zeng… - Nature …, 2024 - nature.com
Realizing an efficient turnover frequency in the acidic oxygen evolution reaction by
modifying the reaction configuration is crucial in designing high-performance single-atom …

Oxygen-evolving photosystem II structures during S1–S2–S3 transitions

H Li, Y Nakajima, E Nango, S Owada, D Yamada… - Nature, 2024 - nature.com
Photosystem II (PSII) catalyses the oxidation of water through a four-step cycle of S i states
(i= 0–4) at the Mn4CaO5 cluster,–, during which an extra oxygen (O6) is incorporated at the …

Using X-ray free-electron lasers for spectroscopy of molecular catalysts and metalloenzymes

U Bergmann, J Kern, RW Schoenlein, P Wernet… - Nature Reviews …, 2021 - nature.com
The metal centres in metalloenzymes and molecular catalysts are responsible for the
rearrangement of atoms and electrons during complex chemical reactions, and they enable …