{"id":22847,"date":"2023-05-04T04:40:05","date_gmt":"2023-05-04T04:40:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/f19c3147-be39-47cf-b63c-b180cebb1dc612"},"modified":"2023-05-04T04:40:05","modified_gmt":"2023-05-04T04:40:05","slug":"scientists-observe-elusive-missing-step-in-photosynthesis-final-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/scientists-observe-elusive-missing-step-in-photosynthesis-final-stage\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists observe elusive missing step in photosynthesis\u2019 final stage"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Researchers at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (along with collaborators in Sweden, Germany and the UK) have shed new light<\/span> on the final step of photosynthesis. They observed in atomic detail how Photosystem II, a protein complex found in plants, undergoes a transformation that leads to the loss of an extra oxygen atom. Scientists believe the discoveries will help provide a roadmap for optimizing clean energy sources. \u201cIt\u2019s really going to change the way we think about Photosystem II,\u201d said Uwe Bergmann, scientist and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who co-authored the paper.<\/p>\n

Researchers took \u201cextremely high-resolution images\u201d of different stages of the process (at room temperature), giving them new insight into specifically how and where the oxygen is produced. Baseball can provide a simple (if somewhat forced) metaphor to illustrate the process. \u201cThe center cycles through four stable oxidation states, known as S0 through S3, when exposed to sunlight,\u201d SLAC explains. \u201cOn a baseball field, S0 would be the start of the game when a player on home base is ready to go to bat. S1-S3 would be players on first, second, and third.\u201d Based on this metaphor, a batter making contact to advance the runners signifies the complex absorbing a sunlight photon. \u201cWhen the fourth ball is hit, the player slides into home, scoring a run or, in the case of Photosystem II, releasing one molecule of breathable oxygen.\u201d It\u2019s that final stage (S4, between third base and sliding home in our metaphor) that they imaged for the first time, where two oxygen atoms bond to release an oxygen molecule, revealing additional steps previously unseen.<\/p>\n

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The video below illustrates the team\u2019s process and discoveries.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMost of the process that produces breathable oxygen happens in this last step,\u201d said Vittal Yachandra, a scientist at Berkeley Lab and co-author of the paper, published in<\/span> Nature<\/em>. \u201cBut there are several things happening at different parts of Photosystem II and they all have to come together in the end for the reaction to succeed. Just like how in baseball, factors like the location of the ball and the position of the basemen and fielders affect the moves a player takes to get to home base, the protein environment around the catalytic center influences how this reaction plays out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The researchers expect an X-ray upgrade later this year to shed more light on the process. It will use a repetition rate of up to a million pulses per second, up from the 120 per second used in this experiment. \u201cWith these upgrades, we will be able to collect several days\u2019 worth of data in just a few hours,\u201d Bergmann said. \u201cWe will also be able to use soft X-rays to further understand the chemical changes happening in the system. These new capabilities will continue to drive this research forward and shed new light on photosynthesis.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team believes the results will help them \u201cdevelop artificial photosynthetic systems that mimic photosynthesis to harvest natural sunlight to convert carbon dioxide into hydrogen and carbon-based fuels.\u201d Jan Kern, another co-author and scientist at Berkley Lab, said, \u201cThe more we learn about how nature does it, the closer we get to using those same principles in human-made processes, including ideas for artificial photosynthesis as a clean and sustainable energy source.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Researchers at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (along with collaborators in Sweden, Germany and the UK) have shed new light on the final step of photosynthesis. They observed in atomic detail how Photosystem II, a protein complex found in plants, undergoes a transformation that leads to the loss of an …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22848,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"hashtags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22847"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22847"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.worldtechguide.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=22847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}