Biological complexity: high-spin manganese in photosynthesis (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, February 20, 2025, 19:56 (16 days ago) @ David Turell

Amazing technical discovery:

https://phys.org/news/2025-02-discovery-high-manganese-centers-photosynthesis.html

"In a small manganese oxide cluster, teams from HZB and HU Berlin have discovered a particularly exciting compound: two high-spin manganese centers in two very different oxidation states. This complex is the simplest model of a catalyst that occurs as a slightly larger cluster in natural photosynthesis, where it enables the formation of molecular oxygen. The discovery is considered an important step towards a complete understanding of photosynthesis.

***

"Now, groups at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and HZB have discovered the long-sought high-spin manganese (V) center in a small manganese oxide cluster. The cluster contains only five atoms in total and looks very simple: two oxygen atoms form bridges between two manganese atoms, one of which is bound to a third oxygen atom as a terminal ligand.

"'This is the simplest form of a bonding motif that also occurs in natural photosynthesis, which makes this discovery very exciting," says HZB researcher Konstantin Hirsch.

***

"'This discovery is very encouraging and we will now continue our search for high-spin manganese(V) centers in even larger clusters that are closer to the inorganic cluster in natural photosynthesis. We hope that one day we will be able to unlock the secret of how nature produces all the oxygen molecules that surround us and that we breathe every day," says Ablyasova."

Comment: it took highly sophisticated lab work to do it. How do natural mutations achieve such a complex enzyme? Not by chance.