Knowing how these key photosynthesis proteins evolve is not only relevant for the search for life on other planets, but could also help researchers find strategies to use photosynthesis in new ways through synthetic biology. Dr Cardona, who is leading such a project as part of his UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, said: "Now we have a good sense of how photosynthesis proteins evolve, adapting to a changing world, we can use 'directed evolution' to learn how to change them to produce new kinds of chemistry.
We could develop photosystems that could carry out complex new green and sustainable chemical reactions entirely powered by light. Materials provided by Imperial College London. Original written by Hayley Dunning. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Science News. Larkum, A. William Rutherford, Tanai Cardona. Time-resolved comparative molecular evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis. ScienceDaily, 24 March Imperial College London.
Photosynthesis could be as old as life itself. Retrieved November 13, from www. The more we know about it, the better we may PubMed Google Scholar. Nature , 61— Google Scholar. Anbar, A. Cosmochim Acta 56, — Science , — Anderson, J. Plant Physiol. Asard, H. Ashida, H. Awramik, S.
Photosynthesis Res. Badger, M. Bald, D. In: N. Murata Ed. Baymann, F. Brugna, M. Acta , — Bhattcharaya, D. BioEssays 26, 50— Beatty, J. USA , — Beerling, D. Lake, J. Acta, 66, — Berman-Frank, I. Berner, R. Acta 70, — Svensk Bot. Blankenship, R. Blackwell Science, Edinburgh. Trends Biochem. Bocherens, H.
Lethaia 26, — Borda, M. Astrobiology 1, — Brasier, M. Brocks, J. Acta 67, — Buchanan, B. Butterfield, N. Paleobiology 26, — Canfield, D. Nature , Earth Planet. Science , 92— Clausen, J. Biochemistry 44, — Dashdori, N. Decker, J. Terra Nova 18, 9— Demmig-Adams, B. Springer, New York. Dismukes, G. Baranov, S. USA 98, — Eck, R. Science N. Evans, M. USA 55, — Fennel, K. Ferreira, K. Nature , — Giordano, M.
Golbeck, John H. Golubic, S. Gomes, R. Gough, D. Solar Physics 74, 21— Govindjee Milestones in photosynthesis research. In: Yunus, M. Govindjee, Beatty, J. Springer, Dordrecht. Granick, S. NY Acad. However, the new study suggests that the origin of oxygenic photosynthesis may have been as much as a billion years earlier, which means complex life would have been able to evolve earlier too.
Cardona wanted to find out when oxygenic photosynthesis originated. Instead of trying to detect oxygen in ancient rocks, which is what had been done previously, he looked deep inside the molecular machines that carry out photosynthesis -- these are complex enzymes called photosystems.
Oxygenic and anoxygenic photosynthesis both use an enzyme called Photosystem I. The core of the enzyme looks different in the two types of photosynthesis, and by studying how long ago the genes evolved to be different, Dr. Cardona could work out when oxidative photosynthesis first occurred.
He found that the differences in the genes may have occurred more than 3. This is also long before cyanobacteria -- microbes that were thought to be the first organisms to produce oxygen -- existed. This means there must have been predecessors, such as early bacteria, that have since evolved to carry out anoxygenic photosynthesis instead. One surprising finding was that the evolution of the photosystem was not linear.
Photosystems are known to evolve very slowly -- they have done so since cyanobacteria appeared at least 2. But when Dr. Cardona used that slow rate of evolution to calculate the origin of photosynthesis, he came up with a date that was older than the earth itself. This means the photosystem must have evolved much faster at the beginning -- something recent research suggests was due to the planet being hotter.
0コメント