Investigation of complex formation of flavodoxin and photosystem 1 by means of direct multiparticle computer simulation

Abstract

Kinetics of complex formation between components of the photosynthetic electron transport chain - flavodoxin and membrane complex photosystem I has been studied using computer model based on methods of multiparticle simulation and Brownian dynamics. We simulated Brownian motion of several hundreds of flavodoxin molecules, taking into account electrostatic interactions and complex shape of the molecules. Our model could describe experimental nonmonotonic dependence of the association rate constant for flavodoxin and photosystem I. This lets us conclude that electrostatic interactions are sufficient to form such kind of nonmonotonic dependence.

Keywords

• flavodoxin
• photosystem I
• Brownian dynamics