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Review

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 5, 971–982 (1 December 2004) | doi:10.1038/nrm1525

The complex architecture of oxygenic photosynthesis

Nathan Nelson & Adam Ben-Shem

Oxygenic photosynthesis is the principal producer of both oxygen and organic matter on earth. The primary step in this process — the conversion of sunlight into chemical energy — is driven by four, multisubunit, membrane-protein complexes that are known as photosystem I, photosystem II, cytochrome b6f and F-ATPase. Structural insights into these complexes are now providing a framework for the exploration not only of energy and electron transfer, but also of the evolutionary forces that shaped the photosynthetic apparatus.