The Higher Plant Plastid Complex I (NDH) is a Reversible Proton Pump that increases ATP production by Cyclic Electron Flow Around Photosystem I

Cyclic electron flow around photosystem I (CEF) is critical for balancing the photosynthetic energy budget of the chloroplast, by generating ATP without net production of NADPH. We demonstrate that the chloroplast NADPH dehydrogenase complex (NDH), a homolog to respiratory Complex I, pumps approximately two protons from the chloroplast stroma to the lumen per electron transferred from ferredoxin to plastoquinone, effectively increasing the efficiency of ATP production via CEF by two-fold compared to CEF pathways involving non-proton-pumping plastoquinone reductases. Under certain physiological conditions, the coupling of proton and electron transfer reactions within NDH should enable a non-canonical mode of photosynthetic electron transfer, allowing electron transfer from plastoquinol to NADPH to be driven by the thylakoid proton motive force possibly helping to sense or remediate mismatches in the photosynthetic budget.