Mei Li and Wen-rui Chang, as well as James P. Allen, Chenda Seng, and Chadwick Larson describe, in two separate contributions, the basics of Protein Crystallography and X-ray Diffraction. Depending on the resolution, this approach can give very detailed buy ICG-001 information on the geometric structure of the proteins, their cofactors, and sometimes of bound substrates or products; “snapshots” are taken on deep frozen crystalline samples and provide the structural basis for understanding how proteins function. Junko Yano and Vittal Yachandra describe how X-ray Spectroscopy

can be employed to obtain high-resolution data of metal–metal and metal–ligand distances in active sites of proteins without the need for crystallization of the protein. This technique and the related X-ray Fluorescence method described by Uwe Bergmann and Pieter Glatzel provide important information on the electronic structures of (metal) cofactors. While these X-ray spectroscopy experiments are currently mostly performed with samples frozen in different intermediate states of the catalytic cycle, kinetic X-ray spectroscopy experiments at room temperature can also

selleckchem be performed and these experiments have started to give important information on dynamic changes at (metal) cofactors sites. Solution structures and protein dynamics can be studied by X-ray Scattering (reviewed by David M. Tiede, Kristy L. Mardis and Xiaobing Zuo) and Neutron Scattering (reviewed by Jörg

Pieper, and Gernot Renger). These techniques promise to give us important insights into how motions help to tune the energetics of biological reactions. Carsten Krebs and J. Martin Bollinger explain in their review how the combination of Rapid Freeze-Quenching and Mössbauer Spectroscopy is able to reveal structural and electronic changes occurring at iron sites during biochemical reactions. Magnetic Resonance methods are the driving force to access photosynthesis at the molecular level. Martina Huber starts with an Introduction to Magnetic Resonance Methods in Photosynthesis. Anton Savitsky and Klaus Möbius discuss how High field EPR and its offshoots Electron Spin Echo (ESE), Electron-Nuclear Double Resonance (ENDOR), Electron Spin Echo Envelope Modulation (ESEEM), and Pulsed Electron Double Resonance www.selleck.co.jp/products/pci-32765.html (PELDOR), in conjunction with site-specific isotope or spin labeling and with the support of modern quantum-chemical computation methods, is capable of providing new insights into the photosynthetic transfer processes. Art Van der Est describes the application of Transient EPR to probe the geometry, electronic structure, and kinetics of electron transfer in reaction centers (RCs). Gerd Kothe and Marion C. Thurnauer demonstrate What you get out of High-time Resolution EPR. They describe the quantum oscillation phenomenon observed at short delay times, after optical excitation, from the spin-correlated radical pair in photosynthetic RCs.