First total synthesis of macrocycle with four stereocentres at the heart of bacterial photosynthesis

Good news! But the abstract of this research is loaded with technical terms.

"After nine years of effort, chemists in the US have completed the first total synthesis of bacteriochlorophyll a, a molecule they describe as ‘one of the most challenging photosynthetic tetrapyrroles to synthesise’. ... approach opens the door to making a wide range of photosynthetic tetrapyrroles and exploring their function ‘in a way that’s not been possible previously’. ...

Photosynthetic tetrapyrroles are organic compounds made up of four pyrrole rings. Common examples are bacteriochlorophyll a and chlorophyll a, the main pigments in anoxygenic and oxygenic photosynthesis, respectively. ..."

"Researchers ... have successfully synthesized bacteriochlorophyll a, a photosynthetic pigment found in bacteria which absorbs infrared light. The work represents the first chemical synthesis of this molecule and could give scientists deeper insights into photosynthetic function and photosynthetic energy. ...

“What we did was synthesize both halves of the macrocycle [made up of rings A,B,C, and D], then use constituents of ring E as the joining site for bringing the two halves together,” ... “When the halves are attached to an atom that will eventually become ring E, a cascade reaction triggers and the molecule self-assembles in the last step.”"

From the abstract:

"Photosynthetic tetrapyrroles absorb light to power the biosphere but have largely been neglected as targets of chemical synthesis.

Bacteriochlorophyll a – a key macrocycle in the bacterial photosynthetic reaction center – contains four stereocenters at the rim of the bacteriochlorin chromophore due to the trans-dialkyl group in each pyrroline ring (B, D), and an epimerizable β-ketoester embedded in the isocyclic ring (E).

Here, each pair of stereodefined vicinal substituents was introduced as a chiral 4-nitroalkanal building block, which was converted to an alkynone for subsequent coupling with an iodopyrrole (A, C), affording the AD and BC dihydrodipyrrins. The dihydrodipyrrins were equipped with reactive groups (1-formyl, AD-half; 1-(1,1-dimethoxymethyl) and 8-(3-methoxy-1,3-dioxopropyl, BC-half) suited for directed macrocycle formation.

Knoevenagel condensation of AD and BC halves afforded a propenone, the nexus for constructing ring E concomitantly with the macrocycle in the subsequent one-flask, double-ring closure (Nazarov cyclization, electrophilic aromatic substitution, elimination of methanol).

The aromatic bacteriopheophorbide was obtained as the 2-trimethylsilylethyl propanoate, which upon acidolysis and esterification with phytol yielded bacteriopheophytin a; subsequent magnesiation gave bacteriochlorophyll a.

The modularity of the synthesis, straightforward construction of asymmetric building blocks, and convergent joining of AD and BC halves suggest that the present route may provide an entrée into diverse photosynthetic macrocycles."

First total synthesis of macrocycle with four stereocentres at the heart of bacterial photosynthesis | Research | Chemistry World

Researchers Synthesize Photosynthetic Molecule Found in Bacteria (original news release)

Synthesis of bacteriochlorophyll a (open access)

Bacteriochlorophyll a is the most common photosynthetic pigment in anoxygenic photosynthetic bacteria, and plays significant roles in light-harvesting, energy-migrating and electron-transporting reactions

Superior photosynthesis abilities of some plants could hold key to climate-resilient crops

Good news! Human ingenuity can handle climate change! Not all photosynthesis is created equal! This could be game changer!

Maybe C3 plants can easily be converted to C4 plants allowing for more efficient agriculture.

Keep in mind: Global warming is a hoax and climate change is a religion!

"More than 3 billion years ago, on an Earth entirely covered with water, photosynthesis first evolved in little ancient bacteria. In the following many millions of years, those bacteria evolved into plants, optimizing themselves along the way for various environmental changes. This evolution was punctuated around 30 million years ago with the emergence of a newer, better way to photosynthesize. While plants like rice continued using an old form of photosynthesis known as C3, others like corn and sorghum developed a newer and more efficient version called C4.

There are now more than 8,000 different C4 plant species, which grow particularly well in hot, dry climates and are some of the most productive crop species in the world. ...

Around 95% of plants use C3 photosynthesis, in which mesophyll cells—green spongy cells that live inside leaves—turn light, water, and carbon dioxide into plant-powering sugars. Despite its high prevalence, C3 photosynthesis has two major shortcomings: 

1) 20% of the time, oxygen is accidentally used instead of carbon dioxide and must be recycled, which slows down the process and wastes energy, and

2) pores on the leaf surface are open too frequently while waiting for carbon dioxide to enter, causing the plant to lose water and become more vulnerable to drought and heat.

Fortunately, evolution has solved these issues with C4 photosynthesis. C4 plants recruit bundle sheath cells, which normally serve as leaf vein support, to photosynthesize alongside mesophyll cells. As a result, C4 plants eliminate those oxygen-use mistakes to conserve energy and keep plant surface pores closed more often to conserve water. The result is a 50% increase in efficiency compared to C3 plants. ...

"We were surprised and excited to find that the difference between C3 and C4 plants is not the removal or addition of specific genes,” says Ecker. “Rather, the difference is on a regulatory level, which could make it easier for us in the long run to turn on more efficient C4 photosynthesis in C3 crops.” ...

When measuring gene expression in rice and sorghum plants, the scientists found that a transcription factor family commonly referred to as DOFs were in charge of turning on the genes to make bundle sheath cells in both species. They also noticed that DOFs were binding to the same regulatory element in both species. However, in C4 sorghum plants, this regulatory element was not only associated with bundle sheath identity genes—it was also turning on the photosynthesis genes. That suggested that C4 plants had at some point tacked ancestral regulatory elements for bundle sheath genes onto photosynthesis genes, so that DOFs would turn on both sets of genes at the same time. This would explain how bundle sheath cells in C4 plants gained the ability to photosynthesize.

These experiments revealed that both C3 and C4 plants contain the necessary genes and transcription factors required for the superior C4 photosynthesis process—a promising discovery for scientists hoping to nudge C3 plants to use C4 photosynthesis. ...

Next on the docket for the team is determining whether rice can be engineered to use C4 photosynthesis rather than C3. ..."

From the abstract:

"C4 photosynthesis is used by the most productive plants on the planet, and compared with the ancestral C3 pathway, it confers a 50% increase in efficiency. In more than 60 C4 lineages, CO2 fixation is compartmentalized between tissues, and bundle-sheath cells become photosynthetically activated. How the bundle sheath acquires this alternate identity that allows efficient photosynthesis is unclear. Here we show that changes to bundle-sheath gene expression in C4 leaves are associated with the gain of a pre-existing cis-code found in the C3 leaf. From single-nucleus gene-expression and chromatin-accessibility atlases, we uncover DNA binding with one finger (DOF) motifs that define bundle-sheath identity in the major crops C3 rice and C4 sorghum. Photosynthesis genes that are rewired to be strongly expressed in the bundle-sheath cells of C4 sorghum acquire cis-elements that are recognized by DOFs. Our findings are consistent with a simple model in which C4 photosynthesis is based on the recruitment of an ancestral cis-code associated with bundle-sheath identity. Gain of such elements harnessed a stable patterning of transcription factors between cell types that are found in both C3 and C4 leaves to activate photosynthesis in the bundle sheath. Our findings provide molecular insights into the evolution of the complex C4 pathway, and might also guide the rational engineering of C4 photosynthesis in C3 crops to improve crop productivity and resilience."

Superior photosynthesis abilities of some plants could hold key to climate-resilient crops - Salk Institute for Biological Studies "Salk scientists discover how some plant species evolved a more efficient photosynthesis approach; findings could help make crops like rice and wheat more resilient to climate change"

Exaptation of ancestral cell-identity networks enables C4 photosynthesis (open access)

Fig. 5: A cell-type-specific cistrome in C3 rice and C4 sorghum drives the partitioning of photosynthesis between mesophyll and bundle-sheath cells.

Cross sections of C3 rice (left) and C4 sorghum (right) shoots. Both grain crops evolved from a common ancestor, but sorghum evolved to photosynthesize more efficiently.

Plant-animal hybrid cells make solar-powered tissues, organs or meat or photosynthesis in animals

Amazing stuff! Onto planimal cells!

"Scientists in Japan have created hybrid plant-animal cells, essentially making animal cells that can gain energy from sunlight like plants. The breakthrough could have major benefits for growing organs and tissues for transplant, or lab-grown meat. ...

In a new study ... the team inserted chloroplasts into animal cells, and found that they continued to perform photosynthetic functions for at least two days. The chloroplasts were sourced from red algae, while the animal cells were cultured from hamsters. ...

When the team shone a specific type of laser light on the cells, they quickly saw chlorophyll – and by extension, chloroplasts – inside the hamster cells. Using another technique called pulse amplitude modulation fluorometry, they confirmed that the chloroplasts were still performing photosynthesis. ...

Intriguingly, the team also noticed that the hamster cells grew faster than usual while they were cultured alongside chloroplasts. ..."

"Energy-making chloroplasts from algae have been inserted into hamster cells, enabling the cells to photosynthesize light ...

The team is continuing its research on creating “planimal” cells that can provide the beneficial features of plants to animals. In this study, it found that animal cells which contained chloroplasts experienced an increased cell growth rate, suggesting that the chloroplasts provided a carbon source (fuel) for the host cells. ..."

From the abstract:

"Chloroplasts are photosynthetic organelles that evolved through the endosymbiosis between cyanobacteria-like symbionts and hosts. Many studies have attempted to isolate intact chloroplasts to analyze their morphological characteristics and photosynthetic activity. Although several studies introduced isolated chloroplasts into the cells of different species, their photosynthetic activities have not been confirmed. In this study, we isolated photosynthetically active chloroplasts from the primitive red alga Cyanidioschyzon merolae and incorporated them in cultured mammalian cells via co-cultivation. The incorporated chloroplasts retained their thylakoid structure in intracellular vesicles and were maintained in the cytoplasm, surrounded by the mitochondria near the nucleus. Moreover, the incorporated chloroplasts maintained electron transport activity of photosystem II in cultured mammalian cells for at least 2 days after the incorporation. Our top-down synthetic biology-based approach may serve as a foundation for creating artificially photosynthetic animal cells."

Plant-animal hybrid cells make solar-powered tissues, organs or meat

Solar-powered animal cells Researchers combine chloroplasts from algae with hamster cells (original news release)

Incorporation of photosynthetically active algal chloroplasts in cultured mammalian cells towards photosynthesis in animals (open access)

Superresolution fluorescence microscopy image. This fluorescence image shows chloroplasts (magenta colored) successfully incorporated into the hamster cells, with other features of the animal cell also highlighted (nuclei in light blue and organelles in yellow-green). 

Scientists Just Discovered 1.75 Billion-Year-Old fossils related to earliest photosynthesis

Amazing stuff!

"... In the McDermott Formation in the desert of northern Australia, tiny structures called thylakoids have been discovered in what are thought to be fossilized cyanobacteria dating back to 1.75 billion years ago. ...

[Researchers] used different high-resolution microscopy techniques to probe the external and internal structures of microfossils of a species known as Navifusa majensis, thought to be cyanobacteria. And, within the bodies of the single-celled organisms from two fossil beds, they found thylakoid membranes. ..."

From the abstract:
"Today oxygenic photosynthesis is unique to cyanobacteria and their plastid relatives within eukaryotes. Although its origin before the Great Oxidation Event is still debated, the accumulation of O2 profoundly modified the redox chemistry of the Earth and the evolution of the biosphere, including complex life. Understanding the diversification of cyanobacteria is thus crucial to grasping the coevolution of our planet and life, but their early fossil record remains ambiguous. Extant cyanobacteria include the thylakoid-less Gloeobacter-like group and the remainder of cyanobacteria that acquired thylakoid membranes. The timing of this divergence is indirectly estimated at between 2.7 and 2.0 billion years ago (Ga) based on molecular clocks and phylogenies and inferred from the earliest undisputed fossil record of Eoentophysalis belcherensis, a 2.018–1.854 Ga pleurocapsalean cyanobacterium preserved in silicified stromatolites. Here we report the oldest direct evidence of thylakoid membranes in a parallel-to-contorted arrangement within the enigmatic cylindrical microfossils Navifusa majensis from the McDermott Formation, Tawallah Group, Australia (1.78–1.73 Ga), and in a parietal arrangement in specimens from the Grassy Bay Formation, Shaler Supergroup, Canada (1.01–0.9 Ga). This discovery extends their fossil record by at least 1.2 Ga and provides a minimum age for the divergence of thylakoid-bearing cyanobacteria at roughly 1.75 Ga. It allows the unambiguous identification of early oxygenic photosynthesizers and a new redox proxy for probing early Earth ecosystems, highlighting the importance of examining the ultrastructure of fossil cells to decipher their palaeobiology and early evolution."

Scientists Just Discovered a 1.75 Billion-Year-Old Secret About The Origin of Life : ScienceAlert

Oldest thylakoids in fossil cells directly evidence oxygenic photosynthesis (no public access)

Images of microfossil specimens of Navifusa majensis

Researchers discover quantum switch for regulating photosynthesis

Good news! Amazing stuff!

"... Light-harvesting complex II (LHCII) is a complex of pigment molecules bound to proteins. It switches between two main functions—dissipating harmful excess light energy as heat under high light intensity through nonphotochemical quenching, and transferring absorbed light to the reaction center with almost a unit efficiency under low light. ...

Bioengineering studies have shown that accelerating the transition between these two functions can increase photosynthetic efficiency—for example, soybean yields have been reported to increase by up to 33%. However, the atomic-level dynamic structural changes in LHCII that activate such allosteric regulation had not been previously elucidated. ...

As part of their work, they reported a series of six cryo-EM structures, including the energy transfer state with LHCII in solution and the energy quenching state with laterally confined LHCII in membrane nanodiscs under both neutral and acidic conditions.

Comparison of these different structures shows that LHCII undergoes a conformational change upon acidification. This change allosterically alters the inter-pigment distance of the fluorescence quenching locus Lutein1 (Lut1)–Chlorophyll612 (Chl612) only when LHCII is confined in membrane nanodiscs, leading to the quenching of excited Chl612 by Lut1. ...

This distance regulates the energy transfer quantum channel in response to the lateral pressure on LHCII and the conformational change, that is, a slight change at its critical distance of 5.6 Å would allow reversible switching between light harvesting and excess energy dissipation. This mechanism enables a rapid response to changes in light intensity, ensuring both high efficiency in photosynthesis and balanced photoprotection with LHCII as a quantum switch. ..."

From the abstract:

"The major light-harvesting complex of photosystem II (LHCII) has a dual regulatory function in a process called non-photochemical quenching to avoid the formation of reactive oxygen. LHCII undergoes reversible conformation transitions to switch between a light-harvesting state for excited-state energy transfer and an energy-quenching state for dissipating excess energy under full sunshine. Here we report cryo-electron microscopy structures of LHCII in membrane nanodiscs, which mimic in vivo LHCII, and in detergent solution at pH 7.8 and 5.4, respectively. We found that, under low pH conditions, the salt bridges at the lumenal side of LHCII are broken, accompanied by the formation of two local α-helices on the lumen side. The formation of α-helices in turn triggers allosterically global protein conformational change, resulting in a smaller crossing angle between transmembrane helices. The fluorescence decay rates corresponding to different conformational states follow the Dexter energy transfer mechanism with a characteristic transition distance of 5.6 Å between Lut1 and Chl612. The experimental observations are consistent with the computed electronic coupling strengths using multistate density function theory."

Researchers discover quantum switch for regulating photosynthesis

Researchers Discover Quantum Switch for Regulating Photosynthesis

Cryo-EM structures of LHCII in photo-active and photo-protecting states reveal allosteric regulation of light harvesting and excess energy dissipation (no public acess)

Fig. 1 Cryo-EM structures for LHCII in nanodisc and in detergent solution at pH 7.8 and 5.4.

Molecular mechanism of NPQ and acidity-induced changes in some key structural factors drive the LHCII trimer to switch between light-harvesting and energy-quenching states. Credit: Institute of Physics

A new solar-powered artificial leave that converts carbon dioxide and water into liquid fuels

Global Warming is a hoax and Climate Change a religion! 

E.g. humans have already developed plenty of technologies to remove the life essential trace gas CO2 from the atmosphere at any scale. Here is another, very recent example!

"The researchers ... harnessed the power of photosynthesis to convert CO2, water and sunlight into multicarbon fuels – ethanol and propanol – in a single step. These fuels have a high energy density and can be easily stored or transported.

Unlike fossil fuels, these solar fuels produce net-zero carbon emissions and are completely renewable, and unlike most bioethanol, they do not divert any agricultural land away from food production. ...
Now, the artificial leaf can directly produce clean ethanol and propanol without the need for the intermediary step of producing syngas. ..."

Let's remember: "The United States is the world’s largest bioethanol producer: according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, almost 45% of all corn grown in the US is used for ethanol production [what an  irresponsible waste since about 2005!!! Brazil is the second largest producer].

“Biofuels like ethanol are a controversial technology, not least because they take up agricultural land that could be used to grow food instead,” ..."

From the abstract:

"The synthesis of high-energy-density liquid fuels from CO2 and H2O powered by sunlight has the potential to create a circular economy. Despite the progress in producing simple gaseous products, the construction of unassisted photoelectrochemical devices for liquid multi-carbon production remains a major challenge. Here we assembled artificial leaf devices by integrating an oxide-derived Cu94Pd6 electrocatalyst with perovskite–BiVO4 tandem light absorbers that couple CO2 reduction with water oxidation. The wired Cu94Pd6|perovskite–BiVO4 tandem device provides a Faradaic efficiency of ~7.5% for multi-carbon alcohols (~1:1 ethanol and n-propanol), whereas the wireless standalone device produces ~1 µmol cm−2 alcohols after 20 h unassisted operation under air mass 1.5 G irradiation with a rate of ~40 µmol h−1 gCu94Pd6−1. This study demonstrates the direct production of multi-carbon liquid fuels from CO2 over an artificial leaf and, therefore, brings us a step closer to using sunlight to generate value-added complex products."

Driving on sunshine: clean, usable liquid fuels made from solar power | University of Cambridge Researchers have developed a solar-powered technology that converts carbon dioxide and water into liquid fuels that can be added directly to a car’s engine as drop-in fuel.

Solar-driven liquid multi-carbon fuel production using a standalone perovskite–BiVO4 artificial leaf (no public access)

Scientists find link between photosynthesis and 'fifth state of matter'

Potentially, harnessing photosynthesis (a marvel of evolution) could solve most of our global energy needs!

"... The study ... found links at the atomic level between photosynthesis and exciton condensates—a strange state of physics that allows energy to flow frictionlessly through a material [at room temperature]. ...
In fact, it looked very much like the behavior in a material that is known as a Bose-Einstein condensate, sometimes known as "the fifth state of matter." In this material, excitons can link up into the same quantum state—kind of like a set of bells all ringing perfectly in tune. This allows energy to move around the material with zero friction. ..."

"... This was a huge surprise. Exciton condensates have only been seen when the material is cooled down significantly below room temperature. It’d be kind of like seeing ice cubes forming in a cup of hot coffee. ..."

From the abstract:

"Bose-Einstein condensation of excitons, in which excitons condense into a single coherent quantum state, known as an exciton condensate, enables frictionless energy transfer, but typically occurs under extreme conditions in highly ordered materials, such as graphene double layers. In contrast, photosynthetic light-harvesting complexes demonstrate extremely efficient transfer of energy in disordered systems under ambient conditions. Here, we establish a link between the two phenomena by investigating the potential for exciton-condensate-like amplification of energy transport in room-temperature light harvesting. Using a model of the Fenna-Matthews-Olson complex and accounting for intrachromophore electron correlation explicitly through the addition of multiple sites to the individual chromophores, we observe amplification of the exciton population in the particle-hole reduced density matrix through an exciton-condensate-like mechanism. The exciton-condensate-like amplification evolves with the dynamics of exciton transfer, and the nature of amplification is influenced by intra- and interchromophore entanglement, as well as the initial excitation model and number of sites per chromophore. Tuning intrachromophore coupling also increases the rate of exciton transfer with a maximum enhancement of nearly 100%. The research provides fundamental connections between exciton condensation and exciton transport in light-harvesting complexes with potential applications for harnessing the exciton-condensate-like mechanism to enhance energy transfer in synthetic systems and create new materials capable of highly efficient energy transfer."

Scientists find link between photosynthesis and 'fifth state of matter'

Scientists find link between photosynthesis and ‘fifth state of matter’ (original news release from the University of Chicago) UChicago scientists hope ‘islands’ of exciton condensation may point way to new discoveries

Exciton-Condensate-Like Amplification of Energy Transport in Light Harvesting (open access)

FIG. 1. Two pathways represented by the two sites of each chromophore.

A Large-Scale Power Plant Has Turned Solar Power Into Hydrogen Fuel

I am not sure this is viable and sustainable at the scale needed for the world population and businesses!

I have recently blogged here my critical opinion about hydrogen and water! And they like us to forget about the Hindenburg disaster!

"... Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology broke through the 1-kilowatt ceiling of green hydrogen generation using solar energy. The system turns solar power into hydrogen, oxygen, and heat. ... Researchers in Switzerland took a promising lab experiment and scaled it into a real-world example of how we could use solar energy to produce green hydrogen. Their system broke the coveted 1-kilowatt ceiling for green hydrogen production, and offers a new commercialization opportunity. ..."

"... But this dish is special, because it works like an artificial tree [???]. After concentrating solar radiation nearly 1,000 times, a reactor above the dish uses that sunlight to convert water into valuable and renewable hydrogen, oxygen, and heat. ... “With an output power of over 2 kilowatts, we’ve cracked the 1-kilowatt ceiling for our pilot reactor while maintaining record-high efficiency for this large scale. ...” ..."

From the abstract:

"The production of synthetic fuels and chemicals from solar energy and abundant reagents offers a promising pathway to a sustainable fuel economy and chemical industry. For the production of hydrogen, photoelectrochemical or integrated photovoltaic and electrolysis devices have demonstrated outstanding performance at the lab scale, but there remains a lack of larger-scale on-sun demonstrations (>100 W). Here we present the successful scaling of a thermally integrated photoelectrochemical device—utilizing concentrated solar irradiation—to a kW-scale pilot plant capable of co-generation of hydrogen and heat. A solar-to-hydrogen device-level efficiency of greater than 20% at an H2 production rate of >2.0 kW (>0.8 g min−1) is achieved. A validated model-based optimization highlights the dominant energetic losses and predicts straightforward strategies to improve the system-level efficiency of >5.5% towards the device-level efficiency. We identify solutions to the key technological challenges, control and operation strategies and discuss the future outlook of this emerging technology."

A Large-Scale Power Plant Has Turned Solar Power Into Hydrogen Fuel (secondary source)

A solar hydrogen system that co-generates heat and oxygen (primary source) EPFL researchers have built a pilot-scale solar reactor that produces usable heat and oxygen, in addition to generating hydrogen with unprecedented efficiency for its size.

Kilowatt-scale solar hydrogen production system using a concentrated integrated photoelectrochemical device (open access)

How many thousands of those need to be built to provide hydrogen for millions of people and businesses?

Fig. 1: Overview of the system

Soaking up far-red sunlight with a helix-shaped nanotube structure

Amazing stuff! Note helical shaped not cylindrical! 

Photosynthesis instead of environmentally hazardous solar panels!

".. the researchers describe a helix-shaped nanotube structure that forms within photosynthetic organisms called cyanobacteria. ...
According to their findings, the helical nanotubes harvest light photons from the far-red part of the light spectrum and deliver the photons for conversion into chemical energy during photosynthesis. These tiny, nanotube “devices” are deployed in low-light environments ...
Researchers have found that in low-light conditions, certain species of cyanobacteria activate a gene cluster that launches the production of proteins known as far-red light phycobiliproteins. These phycobiliproteins assemble themselves into helical nanotubes, distinct from previously discovered, similar proteins that produce cylindrical structures. The cylinder-shaped structures collect photons from the visible light colors in the solar spectrum, such as yellow and orange, whereas the helical nanotubes collect photons from the invisible, far-red portion of the solar spectrum, the researchers say. ...
Cryo-electron microscopy, which flash-freezes biomolecular samples and pelts them with electrons to produce images of molecules, allowed the researchers to see the helical shape of the nanotubes and how they were assembled. Time-resolved absorption spectroscopy, which looks at the way a material’s absorbance changes after it is exposed to light, allowed the researchers to track how quickly energy is transferred through the nanotubes — and the route the energy takes. ..."

From the abstract:

"To compete in certain low-light environments, some cyanobacteria express a paralog of the light-harvesting phycobiliprotein, allophycocyanin (AP), that strongly absorbs far-red light (FRL). Using cryo–electron microscopy and time-resolved absorption spectroscopy, we reveal the structure-function relationship of this FRL-absorbing AP complex (FRL-AP) that is expressed during acclimation to low light and that likely associates with chlorophyll a–containing photosystem I. FRL-AP assembles as helical nanotubes rather than typical toroids due to alterations of the domain geometry within each subunit. Spectroscopic characterization suggests that FRL-AP nanotubes are somewhat inefficient antenna; however, the enhanced ability to harvest FRL when visible light is severely attenuated represents a beneficial trade-off. The results expand the known diversity of light-harvesting proteins in nature and exemplify how biological plasticity is achieved by balancing resource accessibility with efficiency."

Soaking up sunlight with a microscopic molecular device | YaleNews A Yale-led team of chemists has identified a tiny “device” that helps certain photosynthetic organisms collect sunlight.

Helical allophycocyanin nanotubes absorb far-red light in a thermophilic cyanobacterium (open access)

Fig. 1. Overview of FRL-AP helical nanotube structure.

Scientists discover a new way of horizontal gene transfer in a common ocean microbe involved in photosynthesis

Amazing stuff!

This is also more evidence confirming the Global Warming hoax and the Climate Change religion! We don't even understand photosynthesis very well!

"... Now, new research reveals that these tiny bacteria exchange genetic information with one another, even when widely separated, by a previously undocumented mechanism. This enables them to transmit whole blocks of genes, such as those conferring the ability to metabolize a particular kind of nutrient or to defend themselves from viruses, even in regions where their population in the water is relatively sparse.
The findings describe a new class of genetic agents involved in horizontal gene transfer, in which genetic information is passed directly between organisms — whether of the same or different species — through means other than lineal descent. The researchers have dubbed the agents that carry out this transfer “tycheposons,” which are sequences of DNA that can include several entire genes as well as surrounding sequences, and can spontaneously separate out from the surrounding DNA. Then, they can be transported to other organisms by one or another possible carrier system including tiny bubbles known as vesicles that cells can produce from their own membranes. ...
Chisholm, who played a role in the discovery of these ubiquitous organisms in 1988, says of the new findings, “We’re very excited about it because it’s a new horizontal gene-transfer agent for bacteria, and it explains a lot of the patterns that we see in Prochlorococcus in the wild, the incredible diversity.” Now thought to be the world’s most abundant photosynthetic organism, the tiny variants of what are known as cyanobacteria are also the smallest of all photosynthesizers. ...

describes what they found as being something like a genetic LEGO set, with chunks of DNA bundled together in ways that could almost instantly confer the ability to adapt to a particular environment. For example, a species limited by the availability of particular nutrients could acquire genes necessary to enhance the uptake of that nutrient.       

The microbes appear to use a variety of mechanisms to transport these tycheposons (a name derived from the name of the Greek goddess Tyche, daughter of Oceanus). One is the use of membrane vesicles, little bubbles pouched off from the surface of a bacterial cell and released with tycheposons inside it. Another is by “hijacking” virus or phage infections and allowing them to carry the tycheposons along with their own infectious particles, called capsids. These are efficient solutions ... “because in the open ocean, these cells rarely have cell-to-cell contacts, so it’s difficult for them to exchange genetic information without a vehicle.” ..."

From the highlights and absract:

"Highlights

• Tycheposons are novel DNA transposons promoting genomic adaptation in marine bacteria

• Tycheposons can be viral satellites or carry cargo such as nutrient-acquisition genes

• Tycheposons are abundant in viral capsids and extracellular vesicles in seawater

• Tycheposons accelerate genomic island formation and remodeling

Summary

Horizontal gene transfer accelerates microbial evolution. The marine picocyanobacterium Prochlorococcus exhibits high genomic plasticity, yet the underlying mechanisms are elusive. Here, we report a novel family of DNA transposons—“tycheposons”—some of which are viral satellites while others carry cargo, such as nutrient-acquisition genes, which shape the genetic variability in this globally abundant genus. Tycheposons share distinctive mobile-lifecycle-linked hallmark genes, including a deep-branching site-specific tyrosine recombinase. Their excision and integration at tRNA genes appear to drive the remodeling of genomic islands—key reservoirs for flexible genes in bacteria. In a selection experiment, tycheposons harboring a nitrate assimilation cassette were dynamically gained and lost, thereby promoting chromosomal rearrangements and host adaptation. Vesicles and phage particles harvested from seawater are enriched in tycheposons, providing a means for their dispersal in the wild. Similar elements are found in microbes co-occurring with Prochlorococcus, suggesting a common mechanism for microbial diversification in the vast oligotrophic oceans."

Scientists discover a new way of sharing genetic information in a common ocean microbe | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Novel integrative elements and genomic plasticity in ocean ecosystems (open access)

Graphical abstract

Designer catalyst with enzyme-like cavity splits water almost as fast as plants

Good news! Efficient replication of photosynthesis is one of those holy grails! It could e.g. become a new source of energy supply!

"Using molecular design, researchers have developed a synthetic water oxidation catalyst with an enzyme-like cavity to speed up the reaction. This unusual catalytic system achieves the challenging oxidative water-splitting reaction at a comparable rate to the photosystems found in photosynthesis.
Water oxidation is a key step in photosynthesis and involves splitting two water molecules into molecular oxygen and protons using solar energy. While this process is crucial in nature to sustain life, the ability to cheaply reproduce this reaction could help meet humanity’s energy needs by creating a steady stream of oxygen and hydrogen. Synthetic mimics of the natural oxygen evolving complex are known, but generally suffer from low catalytic activity or short lifetimes. ..."

Unfortunately, the following abstract is extremely technical!

From the abstract:

"Inspired by the proficiency of natural enzymes, mimicking of nanoenvironments for precise substrate preorganization is a promising strategy in catalyst design. However, artificial examples of enzyme-like activation of H2O molecules for the challenging oxidative water splitting reaction are hardly explored. Here, we introduce a mononuclear Ru(bda) complex (M1, bda = 2,2′-bipyridine-6,6′-dicarboxylate) equipped with a bipyridine-functionalized ligand to preorganize H2O molecules in front of the metal centre as in enzymatic clefts. The confined pocket of M1 accelerates chemically driven water oxidation at pH 1 by facilitating a water nucleophilic attack pathway with a remarkable turnover frequency of 140 s−1 that is comparable to the oxygen-evolving complex of photosystem II. Single crystal X-ray analysis of M1 under catalytic conditions allowed the observation of a seventh H2O ligand directly coordinated to a RuIII centre. Another H2O substrate is preorganized via a well-defined hydrogen-bonding network for the crucial O–O bond formation by nucleophilic attack."

Designer catalyst with enzyme-like cavity splits water almost as fast as plants | Research | Chemistry World

Enzyme-like water preorganization in a synthetic molecular cleft for homogeneous water oxidation catalysis (no public access)

Photosynthesis used to power a microprocessor for over six months

Good news! What else can we power with photosynthesis?

"Microprocessors can be powered using photosynthetic microorganisms in ambient light without the need for an external power source, new research shows. Led by Emre Ozer from Arm and Christopher Howe from the University of Cambridge, researchers in the UK, Italy and Norway introduced cyanobacteria Synechocystis sp. PCC6803 into an aluminium–air battery to create a biophotovoltaic device. The device is a similar size to an AA battery, is made from durable and mainly recyclable materials and does not require a dedicated light source to function. It is the first reported bioelectrochemical system capable of continuously powering a microprocessor outside of laboratory-controlled conditions. ..."

P.S. I was not able to find the corresponding research paper. I suspect this has not yet been published in a journal.

Photosynthesis used to power a microprocessor for over six months | Research | Chemistry World (behind paywall) System represents a breakthrough in the real-life applicability of biophotovoltaic devices

Bioelectricity generation from live marine seaweed

Will seaweed compete with solar power in the future?

"... Many different species of seaweed grow naturally on the Mediterranean shore of Israel, especially Ulva (also known as sea lettuce) ... After developing new methods to connect Ulva and BPEC [Bio-PhotoElectrochemical Cells], currents a thousand times greater than those from cyanobacteria were obtained – currents that are on the level of those obtained from standard solar cells. ... these increased currents are due to the high rate of seaweed photosynthesis, and the ability to use the seaweed in their natural seawater as the BPEC electrolyte – the solution that promotes electron transfer in the BPEC. In addition, the seaweed provides current in the dark, about 50% of that obtained in light. The source of the dark current is from respiration – where sugars made by the photosynthetic process are used as an internal source of nutrients. In a fashion similar to the cyanobacterial BOEC, no additional chemicals are needed to obtain the current. The Ulva produce mediating electron transfer molecules that are secreted from the cells and transfer the electrons to the BPEC electrode. ..."

From the abstract:

"The conversion of solar energy into electrical current by photosynthetic organisms has the potential to produce clean energy. Bio-photoelectrochemical cells (BPECs) utilizing unicellular photosynthetic microorganisms have been studied, however similar harvesting of electrons from more evolved intact photosynthetic organisms has not been previously reported. In this study, we describe for the first time BPECs containing intact live marine macroalgae (seaweeds) in natural seawater or saline buffer. The BPECs produce electrical currents of >50 mA/cm2, from both light-dependent (photosynthesis) and light-independent processes. These values are significantly greater than the current densities that have been reported for single-cell microorganisms. ..."

Fishing Energy from the Sea Technion researchers develop eco-friendly method to harvest electrical current directly from seaweed

Bioelectricity generation from live marine photosynthetic macroalgae (no public access)

Zeroing in on the origins of Earth’s “single most important evolutionary innovation”

Recommendable!

"... Now, MIT scientists have a precise estimate for when cyanobacteria, and oxygenic photosynthesis, first originated. ...

They developed a new gene-analyzing technique that shows that all the species of cyanobacteria living today can be traced back to a common ancestor that evolved around 2.9 billion years ago. They also found that the ancestors of cyanobacteria branched off from other bacteria around 3.4 billion years ago, with oxygenic photosynthesis likely evolving during the intervening half-billion years, during the Archean Eon.

Interestingly, this estimate places the appearance of oxygenic photosynthesis at least 400 million years before the Great Oxidation Event, a period in which the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans first experienced a rise in oxygen. This suggests that cyanobacteria may have evolved the ability to produce oxygen early on, but that it took a while for this oxygen to really take hold in the environment. ..."

From the abstract:

"... We further show that incorporating relative dating information from horizontal gene transfers greatly improves the precision of these age estimates, by both providing a novel empirical criterion for selecting evolutionary models, and increasing the stringency of sampling of posterior age estimates. Independent of any geochemical evidence or hypotheses, these results support oxygenic photosynthesis evolving at least several hundred million years before the Great Oxygenation Event (GOE), a rapid diversification of major cyanobacterial lineages around the time of the GOE, and a post-Cryogenian origin of extant marine picocyanobacterial diversity."

Zeroing in on the origins of Earth’s “single most important evolutionary innovation” | MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology A new study shows oxygenic photosynthesis likely evolved between 3.4 and 2.9 billion years ago.

The Archean origin of oxygenic photosynthesis and extant cyanobacterial lineages (open access)

A next step in renewable Bionic Leaf fuel production

Recommendable! Contrast renewable energy with synthetic renewable fuels! The production based on photosynthesis of renewable fuels could be a virtuous recycling program of atmospheric carbon dioxide! Unfortunately, it seems it takes much longer to develop this technology into a real world application. Do not confuse this with bioethanol or biodiesel!

First, this Harvard chemistry professor, i.e. Daniel G. Nocera, who was interviewed for this article, turns out to be a typical member of the elite to call for dictatorial Big Government: "Scalable energy storage is energy storage that everybody can use. It needs to penetrate society, and it needs to displace the current energy infrastructure, which is based on carbon." What arrogant hubris!

Actually, the interview is more about water purification than the large scale production of synthetic renewable fuels through photosynthesis. However, it includes the splitting of water as an energy source.

"... Nocera has accomplished the solar fuels process of photosynthesis – the splitting of water to hydrogen and oxygen using light from neutral water, at atmospheric pressure and room temperature. He has performed this solar process at efficiencies of greater than 10%. ... He has since elaborated this invention to accomplish a complete artificial photosynthetic cycle. To do so, he created the bionic leaf, which is a bio-engineered bacterium that uses the hydrogen from that artificial leaf and carbon dioxide from air to make biomass and liquid fuels. ..." (Source)

"... The best batteries store energy 50 to 100 times less than fuel. Take a Tesla. You’re getting into a huge battery. That’s what you’re sitting in: a massive battery that’s replacing the little gas tank in the back of your car. No matter what though, the batteries run up against their limit and have to recharge, same as your phone. Fuels have much more capacity to store energy, which is when you get to the scalable piece. ...

We did that years ago with the Artificial Leaf system we developed. It is completely renewable because when you take the hydrogen it produces and you recombine it with oxygen, you get water, or if you have hydrogen as a fuel directly, or in combination with carbon dioxide to make a liquid fuel, and then you burn that fuel, you get the water back. You’re not using up the water, you’re cycling it. 
In most other catalysts that do water splitting, the water has to come from pristine environments or they corrode. My group created what’s called self-healing catalysts, and they fix themselves in real time. Because they self-heal, you don’t need to use pure water sources. After, all, almost 97 percent of the world’s water is impure. That’s what we added to our system in this latest approach. It combines forward osmosis, to purify the water, with water splitting so you can take dirty water and then get it to a clean water stage, which is then split to make hydrogen and oxygen. ..."

Turning seawater into stored energy – Harvard Gazette

Here is the link to the underlying research paper:

Continuous electrochemical water splitting from natural water sources via forward osmosis

Photosynthesis rewired to generate hydrogen

Let the age of hydrogen power finally begin! Photovoltaic cells and wind turbines belong into the dustbin of obsolete human follies!



"Scientists have successfully directed photosynthetic electron flow away from fixing carbon dioxide and towards proton reduction by fusing together photosystem I (PSI) and algal hydrogenase in vivo. Modified algae cells expressing the PSI–hydrogenase chimera produce hydrogen in a light dependent fashion at high rates."



Photosynthesis rewired to generate hydrogen | Research | Chemistry World Gene transplant repositions algal hydrogenase so that it directly captures electrons from photosystem I

Artificial chloroplasts turn sunlight and carbon dioxide into organic compounds

Global Warming (aka as Climate Change) is a hoax! Nothing beats human ingenuity! This process is probably a bit slow and inefficient, but it is only a matter of time and effort to fix that!

This is what I call recycling!

"Photosynthesis is a two-step process. In chloroplasts, chlorophyll molecules absorb sunlight and pass the extra energy to molecular partners that use it to generate the energy-storing chemicals adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH). A suite of other enzymes working in a complex cycle then use ATP and NADPH to convert CO2 from the air into glucose and other energy-rich organic molecules that the plant uses to grow."

Artificial chloroplasts turn sunlight and carbon dioxide into organic compounds | Science | AAAS

How Chemistry Is Being Used To Save The Environment?

Partially recommendable! How to use photosynthesis to generate electricity or to produce fuel!

Water splitting on haematite photoanodes changes with light intensity

Recommendable! More progress towards hydrogen power!

Water splitting on haematite photoanodes changes with light intensity – Physics World: Mechanism appears to mimic the activation of photosystem II during photosynthesis

Building Synthetic Cells From Scratch

Posted: 1/5/2019

Trigger

Just read this long, fascinating, and in depth article How biologists are creating life-like cells from scratch Built from the bottom up, synthetic cells and other creations are starting to come together and could soon test the boundaries of life. published by Nature Journal on 11/7/2018

To build synthetic cells from the bottom up has been one of the hot frontiers in science for about the past two decades!

European Advances

Surprise, surprise European scientists appear to be at the cutting edge in this field. “In September [of 2018], the US National Science Foundation (NSF) announced its first programme on synthetic cells, funded to the tune of $10 million.” What a late comer to the game! Whereas “... several European investigators ... have proposed building a synthetic cell as one of the European Commission’s Future and Emerging Technologies Flagship schemes, which receive funding of €1 billion.”

Within A Decade

Some scientists predict that we will have functioning synthetic cells created from molecules or other basic ingredients within a decade. We may even achieve industrial scale by then.

Artificial Mitochondria

Without energy synthetic cells would not work very well. “Joachim Spatz’s group at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, Germany, has built a rudimentary mitochondrion that can create ATP inside a vesicle.” In order to do this, they used latest microfluidic technologies.

More Efficient Photosynthesis

According to this article, scientists are already working replicating photosynthesis. Photosynthesis could be an energy source of the future.

“Another Max Planck [Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology] synthetic-biology group ... has been chipping away at other approaches to constructing cellular metabolic pathways. ... pathways that allow photosynthetic microbes to pull carbon dioxide from the environment and make sugars and other cellular building blocks. ...

His group sketched out a system design that could convert CO2 into malate, a key metabolite produced during photosynthesis. ... team searched databases for enzymes that might perform each of the reactions. For a few, they needed to tweak existing enzymes into designer ones.

In the end, they found 17 enzymes from 9 different organisms, including E. coli, an archaeon, the plant Arabidopsis and humans. The reaction, perhaps unsurprisingly, was inefficient and slow7. ... After some further enzyme engineering, … operates 20% more efficiently than photosynthesis. Expanding this work, [team] has begun constructing a crude version of a synthetic chloroplast ...”

As an aside: About four years ago it was shown that quantum mechanics explains the efficiency of photosynthesis (see e.g. here). How will this research of synthetic photosynthesis and quantum effects work out?

Programmable Bioreactors

“... at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis is working on ways to build programmable bioreactors, by introducing simple genetic circuits into liposomes and fusing them together to create more-complex bioreactors. ...

builds these bioreactors using a spinning tube system ... which produces smaller liposomes. The researchers add circles of DNA called plasmids that they have designed to perform a particular function, along with all the machinery needed to make proteins from DNA.”

Minimal Genome

The J. Craig Vintner Institute (JCVI) “... took one of the smallest-known microbial genomes on the planet, that of the bacterium Mycoplasma mycoides, and systematically disrupted its genes to identify the essential ones. Once they had that information, they chemically stitched together a minimal genome in the laboratory.

This synthesized genome contained 473 genes — about half of what was in the original organism — and it was transplanted into a related bacterial species, Mycoplasma capricolum. In 2016, the team showed that this minimal synthetic genome could ‘boot up’ a free-living, although slow-growing organism … As a next step, and supported by an NSF grant of nearly $1 million, ... will attempt to install the JCVI-syn3.0a genome into a synthetic liposome containing the machinery needed to convert DNA into protein, to see whether it can survive. … JCVI has been doing adaptive laboratory evolution experiments with JCVI-syn3.0a, selecting for organisms that grow faster in a nutrient-rich broth. So far, after about 400 divisions, ... have obtained cells that grow about 15% faster than the original organism. ... a handful of gene-sequence changes popping up. But there’s no evidence yet of the microbe developing new cellular functions or increasing its fitness by leaps and bounds.”