Self-Assembly of Photosynthetic Membranes

Bacterial photosynthetic membranes, also known as chromatophores, are tightly packed with integral membrane proteins that work together to carry out photosynthesis. Chromatophores display a wide range of cellular morphologies; spherical, tubular, and lamellar chromatophores have all been observed in different bacterial species, or with different protein constituents. Through recent computational modeling and simulation, it has been demonstrated that the light‐harvesting complexes abundant in chromatophores induce local membrane curvature via multiple mechanisms. These protein complexes assemble to generate a global curvature and sculpt the chromatophores into various cellular‐scale architectures. Seeing the light: The overall architecture of chromatophores, the simplest prototype of photosynthetic machinery (see picture), is considered and the computational methods used to address how their distinct shapes arise are examined. The light‐harvesting protein complexes abundant in chromatophores induce local membrane curvature via multiple mechanisms.