Biological complexity: how photosynthesis controls energy (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, April 10, 2020, 23:26 (1475 days ago) @ David Turell

Still sorting it out. Energy must be controlled in the process:

https://phys.org/news/2020-04-team-mechanism-toggle-photosynthesis.html

"'There's a lot of potential danger with photosynthesis," said Helmut Kirchhoff, professor in WSU's Institute of Biological Chemistry. "If plants take in light energy that isn't used properly for their metabolism, it can poison the plant and kill cells. The switch of light-harvesting proteins is essential to protect the system when there's too much light available."

"Until now, nobody knew for sure how plants avoided that toxicity on sunny days. It's an important scientific breakthrough.

***

"In the paper, the researchers developed a method for studying how lipids, which are molecules in cell membranes that perform a variety of functions, interact with proteins in chloroplasts, the part of green plant cells that photosynthesize light.

"They found that one specific type of lipid, called a nonbilayer lipid, seems to control the switch that the light harvesting protein makes when the plant has enough light and needs to dissipate some of the energy being received.

"'We were suspicious that this nonbilayer lipid had a role in controlling the structure and function of membrane proteins," Kirchhoff said. "We knew it had to have a function to be there because it's the most abundant lipid in photosynthetic membranes. We just didn't know exactly what that role would be.'"

Comment: a necessary control mechanism, which cannot be developed by chance. The system must be designed and set up all at once.