Researchers Reveal the Most Detailed Process of Photosynthesis

Researchers from Michigan State University, together with colleagues from the University of California Berkeley, the University of South Bohemia, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, have helped provide the most precise depiction of crucial biological "antennae" to date.

'Blueprint' for photosynthesis

(Photo : Clay Banks/Unsplash)

Nature has created these structures to capture the sun's energy through photosynthesis, yet they do not belong to plants, as per ScienceDaily.

They are present in cyanobacteria, which are the evolutionary successors of the earliest creatures on Earth capable of converting sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide into sugars and oxygen.

The results, which were published on August 31 in the journal Nature, instantly shed fresh light on microbial photosynthesis, especially how light energy is absorbed and sent to where it is needed to power the conversion of carbon dioxide into sugars.

In the future, the findings could aid researchers in the remediation of harmful bacteria in the environment, the development of artificial photosynthetic systems for renewable energy, and the inclusion of microbes in sustainable manufacturing that begins with carbon dioxide and sunlight as raw materials.

According to Cheryl Kerfeld, Hannah Distinguished Professor of structural bioengineering in the College of Natural Science, there is a lot of interest in using cyanobacteria as solar-powered factories that capture sunlight and convert it into a type of energy that can be used to make important products.

With a design like the one offered in this paper, you may begin thinking about tweaking and enhancing photosynthesis's light-harvesting component.

When you understand how something works, you can better change and manipulate it. This is a significant benefit, according to Markus Sutter, a senior research associate at MSU and Berkeley Lab in California.

For decades, scientists have worked to visualize the many building parts of phycobilisomes to better understand how they function.

Because phycobilisomes are fragile, this piecemeal method is required.

Researchers had previously been unable to obtain high-resolution photographs of undamaged antennas, which are required to understand how they capture and transfer light energy.

"This study represents a milestone in the science of photosynthesis," said Paul Sauer, a postdoctoral researcher at Berkeley Group and UC Berkeley in Professor Eva Nogales' cryogenic electron microscopy lab.

Until recently, the whole light-harvesting structure of a cyanobacteria's antenna has been missing, according to Sauer.

The study sheds light on how evolution devised methods for bacteria to convert carbon dioxide and light into oxygen and sugar long before plants existed on our planet.

Sauer, like Kerfeld, is a corresponding author on the new piece.

The researchers reported numerous important findings, including the discovery of a novel phycobilisome protein and the discovery of two previously unknown ways that the phycobilisome orients its light-capturing rods.

Before this study, researchers knew that when the phycobilisome received too much sunlight, it may trap compounds known as orange carotenoid proteins or OCPs.

The extra energy is released as heat by the OCPs, preventing the photosynthetic system of a cyanobacterium from burning up.

Previously, scientists disagreed on how many OCPs the phycobilisome could bind and where those binding sites were.

The new study provides answers to these fundamental issues as well as potentially useful insights.

This type of surge-protection technology, known as photoprotection and having analogs in the plant world, is inherently inefficient.

Cyanobacteria are sluggish to switch off their photoprotection once it has served their purpose.

And, despite their contribution to making the world habitable for humans and countless other creatures that require oxygen to thrive, cyanobacteria have a negative side effect.

Toxins produced by cyanobacteria blooms in lakes, ponds, and reservoirs can be lethal to natural ecosystems as well as humans and their pets.

Knowing how bacteria not only gather the sun's energy but also defend themselves against too much of it, may inspire new ways to combat dangerous blooms.

Also Read: Scientists Are Resurrecting Ancient Enzymes in Order To Boost Photosynthesis

What is the significance of photosynthesis?

Photosynthesis is essential to the survival of the vast majority of life on Earth. It is the process through which nearly all of the energy in the biosphere becomes accessible to living organisms, as per Britannica.

Photosynthetic organisms, as primary producers, provide the foundation of Earth's food webs and are devoured directly or indirectly by all higher life forms.

Furthermore, photosynthesis accounts for nearly all of the oxygen in the atmosphere.

If photosynthesis were to halt, there would soon be little food or other organic stuff on Earth, most species would vanish, and the Earth's atmosphere would eventually be almost barren of gaseous oxygen.