The bacterial photosynthetic reaction center as a model for membrane proteins.

PERSPECTIVES AND SUMMARY .............................................................. 607 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................... 609 Notation ............................................................................................. 610 STRUCTURE OF THE RC ......................................................................... 610 Protein Structure .................................................................................. 612 Cofactor Structure ................................................................................ 613 RC AS A MODEL FOR THE FOLDING OF MEMBRANE PROTEINS ................ 615 Surface Area and Volume of the RC .......................................................... 615 Stabilizat~:on of the Tertiary Structure of Membrane Proteins ........................... 619 Membrane vs Soluble Proteins: Analogy to Crystal Morphology ....................... 621 Position of the RC in the Membrane ......................................................... 621 ldentifica~ion of Residues Exposed to the Membrane by Sequence Analysis .......... 624 CONCLUDING REMARKS ........................................................................ 630