The Configurational Space of Fucoxanthin and Chlorophyll-a/c binding proteins (FCP) in diatoms
University of Patras, Greece
Principal Investigator
Prof. Vangelis Daskalakis
Doctoral Candidate
Boutheina Zender
Project Description:
Our project, aims to provide an extensive configurational space of various Light Harvesting Complexes, namely the fucoxanthin and chlorophyll a/c binding proteins (FCPs), from diverse diatom species that remain unresolved experimentally. These FCPs bind pigments like fucoxanthin, chlorophyll a/c and diadinoxanthin (Ddx) that are involved in light harvesting and the robust photoprotective mechanism of diatoms. The project includes multiple key objectives: Structure prediction using machine Learning and AI – based methods such as AlphaFold; calculation of a high-resolution Free Energy surface (FES) of the FCP configurational space. Ultimately, the project aims to create a comprehensive database of diverse FCP conformations, paired with high-resolution free energy surface, to fully characterize the FCP configurational space.