RC-LH1-PufX core complex

cellstructuremech:rc_lh1_pufx_core_complex · Energy complex · Multiprotein complex · Proposed

A purple-bacterial chromatophore membrane protein complex that contains a photochemical reaction center, LH1 antenna proteins and PufX, receives excitation from surrounding LH2 antennae, and reduces quinone during cyclic photosynthetic electron transport. [DOI:10.1038/nature02823]

Synonyms: reaction center-LH1-PufX core complex

Part of: plasma membrane-derived chromatophore membrane (GO:0042717)

UniProt location names: UniProt Consortium, CC BY 4.0. Reference label and route sources.

Canonical examples

NCBITaxon:1063 Cereibacter sphaeroides — Purple photosynthetic bacterium, still commonly cited under the synonym Rhodobacter sphaeroides, whose chromatophore membranes contain native RC-LH1-PufX core-complex arrays. [DOI:10.1038/nature02823]

Functions

photosynthetic electron transport chain GO:0009767 — The RC-LH1-PufX core receives excitation energy from LH2 antennae, performs photochemical charge separation, and reduces quinone in the purple-bacterial chromatophore membrane.
- DOI:10.1074/jbc.M412088200 Comayras et al. 2005 modeled excitation transfer and quinone-domain behavior in Rhodobacter sphaeroides reaction-center antenna complexes.

Mechanism graphs

RC-LH1-PufX cores couple LH2 excitation to quinone reduction (FUNCTION)

In purple-bacterial chromatophore membranes, RC-LH1-PufX core complexes receive excitation from LH2 antennae and reduce quinone carriers during cyclic photosynthetic electron transport.

Subject	Predicate	Object	Evidence
RC-LH1-PufX core complex	is part of	plasma membrane-derived chromatophore membrane	`DOI:10.1038/nature02823` Bahatyrova et al. 2004 resolved arrays of RC-LH1-PufX core complexes in native Rhodobacter sphaeroides photosynthetic membranes.
LH2 peripheral light-harvesting antenna complex	transfers excitation energy to	RC-LH1-PufX core complex	`DOI:10.1038/nature02823` Bahatyrova et al. 2004 imaged LH2 complexes as interconnecting RC-LH1-PufX core arrays in native Rhodobacter membranes.
RC-LH1-PufX core complex	reduces	quinone pool	`DOI:10.1074/jbc.M412088200` Comayras et al. 2005 modeled quinone-domain behavior around Rhodobacter reaction-center antenna complexes.
RC-LH1-PufX core complex	contributes to	photosynthetic electron transport chain	`DOI:10.1074/jbc.M412088200` Comayras et al. 2005 connected Rhodobacter reaction-center antenna organization to chromatophore electron-transfer behavior.

Discussions

CURATION_TODO (OPEN): Resolve exact source-neutral component groundings for reaction-center L/M/H, LH1 alpha/beta, and PufX families before adding subunit-level component rows. The complete RC-LH1-PufX core is a record-level chromatophore complex here, but its first record does not guess which InterPro, Pfam or NCBIfam terms exactly cover the purple-bacterial reaction-center, LH1, and PufX constituents.

Evidence

GO:0042717 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for the plasma membrane-derived chromatophore membrane that houses purple-bacterial RC-LH1-PufX core complexes.
GO:0009767 Gene Ontology biological-process term for the photosynthetic electron transport chain.
DOI:10.1038/nature02823 Bahatyrova et al. 2004, The native architecture of a photosynthetic membrane, Nature.
DOI:10.1074/jbc.M412088200 Comayras, Jungas and Lavergne 2005, Functional Consequences of the Organization of the Photosynthetic Apparatus in Rhodobacter sphaeroides, Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Curation history

2026-09-13T06:38:01Z codex · CREATED_RECORD — Scaffolded by scripts/new_record.py
2026-09-13T06:38:34Z codex · EXPANDED_RECORD — Added RC-LH1-PufX synonymy, chromatophore parthood, a Cereibacter example, photosynthetic electron-transport function, GO and literature evidence, a nonmechanistic quinone-reduction graph, and an RC-LH1-PufX subunit-boundary TODO.

Source: data/structures/energy_complex/rc_lh1_pufx_core_complex.yaml