PSII-Water-Dynamics-from-Molecular-Structure-and-Phylogenetic-Comparisons

Describe photosystem II (PSII) Water channel dynamics through molecular modeling and phylogenetic comparative methods.

This work is the product of an AG2PI seed grant. The study implemented, takes a two pronged approach:

1. Molecular modeling of the Photosystem II protein complex
2. Phylogenetic comparative methods

The Molecular modeling uses publicly available PSII crystal strucutres and through the use of Multiconformational Continium Electrostatics (MCCE), model the interaction of the amino acids and water to predict pathways in which water moves from the lumen to the reaction center of the protein. Given limited availability of vasscular plant PSII crystal structures, phylogenetic comparative methods give a means for addressing the gap in molecular strucutres through phylogenetic reconstruction of the amino acidic sequences which make up the PSII protein complex.