Ironies in photosynthetic electron transport: a personal perspective.

In this brief personal perspective, studies, mainly in my laboratory, directed toward understanding of the structure and function of the Fe-metalloprotein electron transport carriers of oxygenic photosynthesis are discussed. This level of understanding and the description of the events that led to this level are inevitably incomplete. The Fe-proteins considered are those, cytochromes b-559 (560), f, b (6), and x, and the Rieske [2Fe-2S] iron-sulfur protein, which have now been placed in a structural context as a result of X-ray diffraction analysis of crystals of Photosystem II and the cytochrome b (6) f complex and the Photosystem II reaction center.