How ultrafast X-ray pulses can reveal hidden secrets of photosynthesis

摘要

X-ray-based techniques are extremely versatile and can provide information regarding the atomicarrangement of atoms in a molecule and are often the method of choice for exploring the structuresof proteins and their ligands. The photosynthetic splitting of water and evolution of molecular oxygenby plants and cyanobacteria is one of the key reactions in nature, which is catalysed by a metal site ina membrane-bound photosynthetic protein complex. In this article, we will describe how X-ray pulselasers can simultaneously probe the overall atomic structure of the photosynthetic system and theelectronic structure of a catalytic metal site under physiological conditions in real time.