Tracking the molecular evolution of photosynthesis through characterization of atomic contents of the photosynthetic units.

Oxygen molecules have a great impact on protein evolution. We have performed a comparative study of key photosynthetic proteins in order to seek the answer to the question; did the evolutionary substitution of oxygen- and nitrogen-containing residues in the photosynthetic proteins correspond to nutrient constraints and metabolic optimization? The D1 peptide in RC II complexes has higher oxygen-containing amino acid residues and PufL/PufM have lower oxygen content in their peptides. In this article, we also discuss the possible influences of micro-environment and the available nutrients on the protein structure and their atomic distribution.