The results could have long-range implications for artificial photosynthesis and optogenetics—the use of light to selectively activate biological processes.
Cyanobacteria are water-dwelling microbes capable of absorbing sunlight and converting it into chemical energy through photosynthesis. Long ago, ancient versions of these bacteria were incorporated into plant cells, where they eventually evolved into chloroplasts, the organelles responsible for carrying out photosynthesis in green plants. Today, in seeking to develop artificial photosynthesis to harness the sun’s abundant energy, scientists look to cyanobacteria to better understand the nuts and bolts of how natural photosynthesis works.
Cyanobacterial “off switch”
One topic of interest is how cyanobacteria respond to too much light. If a sunlight-harvesting system becomes overloaded with absorbed solar energy, it most likely will suffer some form of damage. Nature has solved the problem in cyanobacteria through a protective mechanism—an energy-quenching “off switch” in which excess solar energy is safely dissipated as heat.
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Illustration: X-ray footprinting provides time-resolved information about where key conformational changes occur. On the left is the overall OCP structure. The two structures on the right highlight local areas with increasing protein packing over time (blue shading) and areas with decreasing protein packing over time (red shading). The changes in accessibility are initiated by the movement of the carotenoid molecule (magenta chain).