Tag: Photosynthesis

Zhi Li, Andan Zhu, et al. compare inbred and hybrid lines to explore how daily changes in metabolic pathways affect hybrid vigor. The Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.20.00320  Background: Heterosis or hybrid vigor refers to the superior growth or fitness in the hybrid progeny compared to one…

Photosystem I (PSI) is a membrane-bound protein complex that plays a central role in the conversion of solar energy to chemical energy to drive assimilate production.  Photosystem I is an enzyme complex that transfers electrons from plastocyanin (Pc) to ferredoxin (Fd). Here Caspy et al. have characterized…

Mother Nature has a way of keeping seemingly useless structures around millions of years. Such structures are likely to have a use that is not obvious, although they could also be remnants of the evolutionary past without extant function, or non-functional but harmless byproducts of a different adaptive…

The rate of carboxylation by Rubisco versus the rate of the competing oxygenation reaction limits photosynthesis in some conditions, so many researchers are investigating ways to enhance Rubisco. Rubisco is not limited to green plants but can be found in other lineages including red algae and photosynthetic…

AuBuchon-Elder and Coneva et al. reveal an important function for apparently non-functional floral structures. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.20.004242 By Taylor AuBuchon-Elder1,*, Viktoriya Coneva1,2*, Doug K. Allen1,3†, and Elizabeth A. Kellogg1† 1Donald Danforth Plant Science…

Charlotte Gommers, Assistant Features Editor charlotte.gommers@wur.nl For a long time, the study of light fueled two independent fields of plant sciences. On the one hand, light energy is absorbed in the chloroplasts, to drive sugar production via photosynthesis. On the other hand, light is an…

Rubisco is the enzyme responsible for the fixation of CO2 to ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate (RuBP) during photosynthetic reactions. However, this enzyme has some functional issues, such as a slow catalytic turnover rate and sensitivity to temperature and CO2, and it catalyzes a competing oxygenation process…

Ananya Mukherjee University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588 ORCID ID: 0000-0003-1802-1806 amukherjee3@unl.edu Photosynthetic organisms often face fluctuations in light quality and quantity. Green plants and algae have built-in mechanisms that allow them to adapt to such changes. One…