Photosynthesis articles within Nature

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cultivation of a new anoxygenic phototrophic bacterium from Boreal Shield lake water—representing a transition form in the evolution of photosynthesis—offers insights into how the major modes of phototrophy diversified.

    • J. M. Tsuji
    • , N. A. Shaw
    •  & J. D. Neufeld

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Serial femtosecond crystallography reveals the structural dynamics of photosystem II during the S-state transitions that produce dioxygen, providing insight into electron transfer, water insertion, proton release and O–O bond formation on sub-microsecond timescales.

    • Hongjie Li
    • , Yoshiki Nakajima
    •  & Jian-Ren Shen

  • Article |

    Ground truthed thermal data from a new NASA satellite combined with experimental warming data from three continents in an empirical model suggests that tropical forests are closer to a high temperature threshold than previously thought.

    • Christopher E. Doughty
    • , Jenna M. Keany
    •  & Joshua B. Fisher

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Microsecond infrared spectroscopy together with quantum chemistry reveal the rate-determining proton and electron movements and identify an oxygen-radical state of the manganese cluster as the S4 state.

    • Paul Greife
    • , Matthias Schönborn
    •  & Holger Dau

  • Article |

    Cryogenic electron microscopy structures of the Synechocystis phycobilisome—alone and bound with orange carotenoid protein—reveal detailed information regarding the biophysical basis of the control of cyanobacterial light harvesting.

    • María Agustina Domínguez-Martín
    • , Paul V. Sauer
    •  & Cheryl A. Kerfeld

  • Article |

    Cryo-electron microscopy structures of the photosystem I–NADH dehydrogenase-like supercomplex in barley provide structural details to elucidate the functions and regulation of photosystem I-dependent cyclic electron transport in chloroplasts.

    • Liangliang Shen
    • , Kailu Tang
    •  & Xing Zhang

  • Article |

    A cryo-electron microscopy structure of the light-harvesting–reaction centre (LH1–RC) complex of the photosynthetic bacterium Blastochloris viridis suggests factors that underlie the large redshift in the absorption spectrum of bacteriochlorophyll in the complex and that promote quinone–quinol translocation across the LH1 ring.

    • Pu Qian
    • , C. Alistair Siebert
    •  & C. Neil Hunter

  • Article |

    Single-particle cryo-electron microscopy is used to resolve the structure of the phycobilisome, a 16.8-megadalton light-harvesting megacomplex, from the red alga Griffithsia pacifica at a resolution of 3.5 Å.

    • Jun Zhang
    • , Jianfei Ma
    •  & Sen-Fang Sui

  • Letter |

    A global analysis of gross primary productivity reveals that drought recovery is driven by climate and carbon cycling, with recovery longest in the tropics and high northern latitudes, and with impacts increasing over the twentieth century.

    • Christopher R. Schwalm
    • , William R. L. Anderegg
    •  & Hanqin Tian

  • Letter |

    Long-term records of global carbonyl sulfide levels reveal that terrestrial gross primary production (GPP) increased by around 30% during the twentieth century—a finding that may aid understanding of the connection between GPP growth and climate change.

    • J. E. Campbell
    • , J. A. Berry
    •  & M. Laine

  • Letter |

    The radiation-damage-free structure of the photosystem II membrane protein complex, which oxidizes water into dioxygen in an oxygen evolving complex, has been determined by an X-ray free electron laser at a resolution of 1.95 Å; one of the substrate oxygen atoms in this reaction is now identified.

    • Michihiro Suga
    • , Fusamichi Akita
    •  & Jian-Ren Shen

  • Letter |

    The plant enzyme Rubisco is the main enzyme converting atmospheric carbon dioxide into biological compounds, however, this enzymatic process is inefficient in vascular plants; this study demonstrates that tobacco plants can be engineered to fix carbon with a faster cyanobacterial Rubisco, thus potentially improving plant photosynthesis.

    • Myat T. Lin
    • , Alessandro Occhialini
    •  & Maureen R. Hanson

  • Letter |

    Femtosecond X-ray pulses were used to obtain diffraction data on photosystem II, revealing conformational changes as the complex transitions from the dark S1 state to the double-pumped S3 state; the time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography technique enables structural determination of protein conformations that are highly prone to traditional radiation damage.

    • Christopher Kupitz
    • , Shibom Basu
    •  & Petra Fromme

  • Letter |

    An analysis of the relative effects of transpiration and evaporation, which can be distinguished by how they affect isotope ratios in water, shows that transpiration is by far the largest water flux from Earth’s continents, representing 80 to 90 per cent of terrestrial evapotranspiration and using half of all solar energy absorbed by land surfaces.

    • Scott Jasechko
    • , Zachary D. Sharp
    •  & Peter J. Fawcett

  • News |

    A genetic analysis reveals the ancient, complex — and symbiotic — roots of photosynthesis in plants.

    • David Biello

  • News & Views |

    A three-year study provides insights into how the productivity of a semi-arid rangeland, containing grasses using different photosynthetic pathways, will change in a warmer world with more atmospheric carbon dioxide. See Letter p.202

    • Dennis Baldocchi

  • Q&A |

    A plant biologist has won an international grant for his work using genetic tools to advance understanding of photosynthesis.

    • Virginia Gewin

  • Letter |

    During photosynthesis, light energy is used by photosystems I and II to establish electron flow, which ultimately results in the production of ATP and NADPH. Two modes of electron flow exist, a linear electron flow and a cyclic electron flow (CEF). The latter pathway generates more ATP, but its molecular components have been elusive. Here, a combination of biochemical and spectroscopic techniques has been used to identify the supercomplex that drives CEF in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

    • Masakazu Iwai
    • , Kenji Takizawa
    •  & Jun Minagawa

  • News & Views |

    Theoretical analyses reveal how plant investment in the architecture of leaf veins can be shuffled for different conditions, minimizing the construction costs associated with supplying water to leaves.

    • David J. Beerling
    •  & Peter J. Franks

  • News & Views |

    The photosynthetic apparatus of cryptophyte algae is odd — its pigments are farther apart than is expected for efficient functioning. A study into how this apparatus works so well finds quantum effects at play.

    • Rienk van Grondelle
    •  & Vladimir I. Novoderezhkin

  • Article |

    Form I Rubisco, one of the most abundant proteins in nature, catalyses the fixation of atmospheric CO2 in photosynthesis. The limited catalytic efficiency of Rubisco has sparked extensive efforts to re-engineer the enzyme to enhance agricultural productivity. To bring this goal closer, the formation of cyanobacterial form I Rubisco is now analysed by in vitro reconstitution and cryo-electron microscopy.

    • Cuimin Liu
    • , Anna L. Young
    •  & Manajit Hayer-Hartl

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