Tag: Photosynthesis

Zhang et al. discover a protein that interacts with the photoreceptor phyA and plays a role in plant response to far-red light. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.17.00677  By Shaoman Zhang, Cong Li and Jigang Li Background:  Far-red (FR) light, corresponding to 700- to 750- nm wavelengths…

During seedling greening, chloroplasts are formed from proplastids. Liang and Zhu et al. used a combination of 3D electron tomography of cryo-fixed Arabidopsis cotyledons at various times after illumination to track their development. The fine structure images, accompanied by transcriptomic analysis…

Plants have many proteins found in the light-harvesting complex, whereas cyanobacteria have only the high-light-inducible proteins (Hlips).  One-helix proteins (OHPs) are the plant homologs of Hlips, but their precise functions have been unclear. Hey and Grimm used genetic and biochemical approaches…

Some proteins are put to work in more than one job, in a form of evolutionary improvization. They are often described as "moonlighting" proteins, referring to the practice of people taking a second job, typically after dark, to help pay the bills.  A classic example of a moonlighting protein is the…

Plant scientists are familiar with the steep drop in photosynthetic activity when plants are illuminated with far-red photons (> 700 nm), because the energy of these long-wavelength photos is insufficient to initiate photochemistry at the chlorophyll a reaction center. Previously, some studies have…

The year 2016 marked a half-century since the discovery of C4 photosynthesis, yet we still seek to elucidate many of the mechanisms underpinning the C4 cycle. Although C4 and C3 plants share molecular units involved in photosynthesis (Miyao, 2003; Kellogg, 2013), C4 plants have unique morphological traits…

Green plants use photosynthesis to covert light into ATP (adenosine triphosphate) through the molecular action of the chloroplast F1Fo ATP synthase (cF1Fo). The ATP synthesis happens in the hydrophilic head (c F1) and is powered by the cFo rotary motor located in the photosynthetic membrane. This rotary…

Oxygen (O2) is evolved during photosynthetic electron transport when water is split by the oxygen-evolving complex to provide protons and electrons to the chloroplastic electron chain, thereby generating ATP and NADPH—the energy source and reducing power for plant metabolism. The majority of this chemical…