Summary
Photosynthetic microbes contribute over 50% of carbon fixation on Earth. Inhabiting extremely diverse environments, they always have to cope with a friend that is simultaneously their enemy: sunlight. Photon energy is necessary for photosynthesis, but it continuously damages the photosynthetic apparatus, primarily the first enzyme in oxygenic photosynthesis – Photosystem II (PSII) – in the process of photoinhibition. Upon photodamage, PSII becomes irreversibly inactivated, unable to do electron transfer, and requires costly repair involving protein translation. Photoinhibition represents a major limiting factor to terrestrial and aquatic photosynthesis. Despite decades of research on PSII and photoinhibition, many key aspects of photoinhibition remain unresolved, among them: -the site within the PSII complex where the photoinhibitory damage takes place, as well as its molecular nature -partitioning of the known different types of damage, dependent on the environment and conditions -the role of the mysterious haem b559, conserved in phototrophs close to PSII reaction centre and transferring electrons, long speculated to play a role in photoprotection but with no convincing role assigned to date In PHOTONICS, I aim to focus on these issues to provide a thorough description of photoinhibition and photoprotection strategies in photosynthetic microbes. I will use a combination of novel in vivo methods, taking advantage of the most recent developments in time-resolved fluorescence- and absorption spectroscopies. These will be combined with genetics and state-of-the-art structural biology. It is the integrative nature of PHOTONICS, bridging different scales of complexity in a hypothesis-driven manner, that will allow to finally resolve the critical missing pieces of PSII function and damage. Finally, it will provide a methodological blueprint for assessment of photoinhibition in situ, and aid modelling of photosynthetic productivity under fluctuating conditions.
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| Web resources: | https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101116491 |
| Start date: | 01-09-2024 |
| End date: | 31-08-2029 |
| Total budget - Public funding: | 1 498 315,00 Euro - 1 498 315,00 Euro |
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Original description
Photosynthetic microbes contribute over 50% of carbon fixation on Earth. Inhabiting extremely diverse environments, they always have to cope with a friend that is simultaneously their enemy: sunlight. Photon energy is necessary for photosynthesis, but it continuously damages the photosynthetic apparatus, primarily the first enzyme in oxygenic photosynthesis – Photosystem II (PSII) – in the process of photoinhibition. Upon photodamage, PSII becomes irreversibly inactivated, unable to do electron transfer, and requires costly repair involving protein translation. Photoinhibition represents a major limiting factor to terrestrial and aquatic photosynthesis. Despite decades of research on PSII and photoinhibition, many key aspects of photoinhibition remain unresolved, among them: -the site within the PSII complex where the photoinhibitory damage takes place, as well as its molecular nature -partitioning of the known different types of damage, dependent on the environment and conditions -the role of the mysterious haem b559, conserved in phototrophs close to PSII reaction centre and transferring electrons, long speculated to play a role in photoprotection but with no convincing role assigned to date In PHOTONICS, I aim to focus on these issues to provide a thorough description of photoinhibition and photoprotection strategies in photosynthetic microbes. I will use a combination of novel in vivo methods, taking advantage of the most recent developments in time-resolved fluorescence- and absorption spectroscopies. These will be combined with genetics and state-of-the-art structural biology. It is the integrative nature of PHOTONICS, bridging different scales of complexity in a hypothesis-driven manner, that will allow to finally resolve the critical missing pieces of PSII function and damage. Finally, it will provide a methodological blueprint for assessment of photoinhibition in situ, and aid modelling of photosynthetic productivity under fluctuating conditions.Status
SIGNEDCall topic
ERC-2023-STGUpdate Date
23-11-2024
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