Biological complexity: photosynthesis, use of red spectrum (Introduction)

by David Turell , Sunday, March 21, 2021, 20:59 (1132 days ago) @ David Turell

Involves more complexity:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210318111430.htm

"Photosynthesis represents the only biological process, which converts the energy of sunlight into chemically stored energy. On molecular level, the photosynthetic key enzymes called photosystems are responsible for this conversion process. Photosystem I (PSI), one of the two photosystems, is a large membrane protein complex that can be present in different forms -- as monomers, dimers, trimers or even tetramers. New isolation technique helps revealing the structure of monomeric PSI.

***

"The atomic structure of monomeric PSI provides novel insights into the energy transfer inside the protein complex as well as on the localization of so-called red chlorophylls -- specially arranged chlorophylls, closely interacting with each other and thus enabling the absorption of low-energy far red light, which normally cannot be used for photosynthesis. Interestingly, the structure revealed that the red chlorophylls seem to interact with lipids of the surrounding membrane. This structural arrangement might indicate that additional thermal energy is used to make far red light accessible for photosynthesis. Long-run cooperation bears further fruits."

Comment: Without photo synthesis there would be no oxygen-using life. It didn't come to being by accident considering how highly complex are all the parts, still not fully understood.