Tansley Review No. 109 - The structure of photosynthetic complexes in bacteria and plants: an illustration of the importance of protein structure to the future development of plant science

This review sets out the case that now is the time for plant science to est ablish the technologies required for routinely studying the structure and f unction of plant proteins. The impact that protein structural information c an have is illustrated here with reference to photosynthesis. Our understan ding of the precise molecular mechanisms of the light-reactions of photosyn thesis has been transformed by the combination of high-resolution protein s tructural data and detailed functional studies. The past few years have bee n a particularly exciting time to be engaged in basic plant science researc h. The application of modern techniques of molecular biology has allowed ma ny key questions to be addressed. The stage is now set for an even bigger r evolution as the current plant genome sequencing projects are completed. If these advances are going to be fully exploited, plant science must get to grips with studying proteins, not just genes. Reliable methods for the over expression of proteins in their native state coupled with routine access to structure determination must become the norm rather than the exception. In 1998 there were about 9000 protein structures deposited in the Brookhaven database. Very few of these are plant proteins. This trend will have to be reversed if research in molecular plant science is to fulfil its potential.