1 Are plastocyanin and ferredoxin specific electron carriers or generic redox 2 capacitors? Classical and murburn perspectives on two chloroplast proteins 3 Daniel Andrew Gideon1,2*, Vijay Nirusimhan2 & Kelath Murali Manoj1* 4 *Corresponding authors 5 Email:
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[email protected] 6 7 1Satyamjayatu: The Science & Ethics Foundation 8 Kulappully, Shoranur-2 (PO), Palakkad District, Kerala State, India-679122. 9 10 2 Department of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Bishop Heber College (Autonomous), 11 Vayalur Road, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India-620017. 12 13 ABSTRACT: Within the context of light reaction of photosynthesis, the structure-function 14 correlations of the chloroplast proteins of plastocyanin and ferredoxins (Fd) are analyzed via 15 two perspectives: 1) The Z-scheme, which considers PC/Fd as specific affinity binding-based 16 electron-relay agents, thereby deterministically linking the functions of Cytochrome b6f (Cyt. + 17 b6f) and Photosystem I (PS I) to NADP reduction by Fd:NADPH oxidoreductase (FNR) via 18 protein-protein contacts and 2) The murburn explanation for oxygenic photophosphorylation, 19 which deems PC/Fd as generic ‘redox capacitors’, temporally accepting and releasing one- 20 electron equivalents in reaction milieu. Amino acid residues located on the surface loci of key 21 patches of PC/Fd vary in electrostatic/contour (topography) signatures. Crystal structures of 22 four different complexes each of cyt.f-PC and Fd-FNR show little conservation in the 23 contact-surfaces, thereby discrediting ‘affinity binding-based electron transfers (ET)’ as an 24 evolutionary logic. Further, thermodynamic and kinetic data on wildtype and mutant proteins 25 interactions do not align well with model 1.