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Electrochemical Field-Effect Transistor Utilization to Study the Coupling Success Rate of Photosynthetic Protein Complexes to Cytochrome c Takshi, Arash; Yaghoubi, Houman; Wang, Jing; Jun, Daniel; Beatty, J. Thomas

Abstract

Due to the high internal quantum efficiency, reaction center (RC) proteins from photosynthetic organisms have been studied in various bio-photoelectrochemical devices for solar energy harvesting. In vivo, RC and cytochrome c (cyt c; a component of the biological electron transport chain) can form a cocomplex via interprotein docking. This mechanism can be used in vitro for efficient electron transfer from an electrode to the RC in a bio-photoelectrochemical device. Hence, the success rate in coupling RCs to cyt c is of great importance for practical applications in the future. In this work, we use an electrochemical transistor to study the binding of the RC to cytochrome. The shift in the transistor threshold voltage was measured in the dark and under illumination to estimate the density of cytochrome and coupled RCs on the gate of the transistor. The results show that ~33% of the cyt cs on the transistor gate were able to effectively couple with RCs. Due to the high sensitivity of the transistor, the approach can be used to make photosensors for detecting low light intensities.

Item Metadata

Title
Electrochemical Field-Effect Transistor Utilization to Study the Coupling Success Rate of Photosynthetic Protein Complexes to Cytochrome c
Creator
Takshi, Arash; Yaghoubi, Houman; Wang, Jing; Jun, Daniel; Beatty, J. Thomas
Publisher
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Date Issued
2017-03-30
Description
Due to the high internal quantum efficiency, reaction center (RC) proteins from photosynthetic organisms have been studied in various bio-photoelectrochemical devices for solar energy harvesting. In vivo, RC and cytochrome c (cyt c; a component of the biological electron transport chain) can form a cocomplex via interprotein docking. This mechanism can be used in vitro for efficient electron transfer from an electrode to the RC in a bio-photoelectrochemical device. Hence, the success rate in coupling RCs to cyt c is of great importance for practical applications in the future. In this work, we use an electrochemical transistor to study the binding of the RC to cytochrome. The shift in the transistor threshold voltage was measured in the dark and under illumination to estimate the density of cytochrome and coupled RCs on the gate of the transistor. The results show that ~33% of the cyt cs on the transistor gate were able to effectively couple with RCs. Due to the high sensitivity of the transistor, the approach can be used to make photosensors for detecting low light intensities.
Subject
Bio-photosensor; Reaction center; Rhodobacter sphaeroides; Charge density; Protein-protein interaction
Genre
Article
Type
Text
Language
eng
Date Available
2019-06-10
Provider
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights
CC BY 4.0
DOI
10.14288/1.0379380
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/2429/70598
Affiliation
Science, Faculty of; Non UBC; Microbiology and Immunology, Department of
Citation
Biosensors 7 (2): 16 (2017)
Publisher DOI
10.3390/bios7020016
Peer Review Status
Reviewed
Scholarly Level
Faculty
Rights URI
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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CC BY 4.0