Tag: Photosynthesis

By Patrice Salomé, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA  Salomé and Merchant analyze hundreds of RNA-seq samples in the single-cell green alga and discover vast co-expression potential and surprising residual synchronized expression across samples derived from cultures…

Algae powered by red algal-derived plastids (e.g., diatoms, dinoflagellates, and coccolithophores) are among the most evolutionary and ecologically successful eukaryotes on Earth, but their origins and relationships remain poorly understood. Here, Strassert et al. test the rhodoplex hypothesis that designates…

An efficient C4 photosynthetic pathway relies on the coordination between the biochemical carbon concentration mechanism that secures high rates of C4 acid flow into the bundle sheath (BS) and anatomical modifications that minimize CO2 leakage out of the BS cells. Suberin deposition in BS cell walls…

Sipka and coworkers show that the closed state of photosystem II holds a formerly unrecognized structural and functional plasticity and upon illumination assumes a light-adapted charge-separated state. [Plant Cell https://academic.oup.com/plcell/advance-article/doi/10.1093/plcell/koab008/6119330] By…

Hosotani et al. explore the molecular mechanisms that modulate stomatal opening under different light conditions. by Sakurako Hosotani and Atsushi Takemiya (Yamaguchi University)  Background: Opening of stomatal pores is essential for photosynthetic CO2 fixation and transpiration in terrestrial…

Light comes largely from above, and plants have evolved strategies to efficiently capture this light even when competing with other potentially shading plants. However, at a field-level, such competition may (and does) prevent plants from collectively maximizing light use efficiency, hence yield. In…

Three key factors affect a plant’s ability to fix carbon: enzymatic activity of Rubisco, stomatal conductance, and the journey from sub-stomatal cavity to Rubisco, also known as mesophyll conductance (gm). This latter is the focus of this new work by Clarke et al. They delightfully compare this journey…

Redox switches regulate photosynthetic reactions and are mediated by conserved cysteine pairs, activated by reduction under light and deactivated by oxidation in the dark. Those reactions are mediated by thioredoxins (Trx). Usually, only plastidic and not cytosolic isozymes show these redox switches.…