| 1. |
- Chow, Wah Soon, et al.
(författare)
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A tribute to Robert John Porra (august 7, 1931–may 16, 2019)
- 2021
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Ingår i: Photosynthesis Research. - : Springer Nature. - 0166-8595 .- 1573-5079. ; 147:2, s. 125-130
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Robert John Porra (7.8.1931–16.5.2019) is probably best known for his substantial practical contributions to plant physiology and photosynthesis by addressing the problems of both the accurate spectroscopic estimation and the extractability of chlorophylls in many organisms. Physiological data and global productivity estimates, in particular of marine primary productivity, are often quoted on a chlorophyll basis. He also made his impact by work on all stages of tetrapyrrole biosynthesis: he proved the C5 pathway to chlorophylls, detected an alternative route to protoporphyrin in anaerobes and the different origin of the oxygen atoms in anaerobes and aerobes. A brief review of his work is supplemented by personal memories of the authors.
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| 2. |
- Dau, Holger, et al.
(författare)
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Three overlooked photosynthesis papers of Otto Warburg (1883-1970), published in the 1940s in German and in Russian, on light-driven water oxidation coupled to benzoquinone reduction
- 2021
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Ingår i: Photosynthesis Research. - : Springer. - 0166-8595 .- 1573-5079. ; 149:3, s. 259-264
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- After a brief background on Otto Heinrich Warburg (1883–1970), and some of his selected research, we provide highlights, in English, of three of his papers in the 1940s—unknown to many as they were not originally published in English. They are: two brief reports on Photosynthesis, with Wilhelm Lüttgens, originally published in German, in 1944: ‘Experiment on assimilation of carbonic acid’; and ‘Further experiments on carbon dioxide assimilation’. This is followed by a regular paper, originally published in Russian, in 1946: ‘The photochemical reduction of quinone in green granules’. Since the 1944 reports discussed here are very short, their translations are included in the Appendix, but that of the 1946 paper is provided in the Supplementary Material. In all three reports, Warburg provides the first evidence for and elaborates on light-driven water oxidation coupled to reduction of added benzoquinone. These largely overlooked studies of Warburg are in stark contrast to Warburg’s well-known error in assigning the origin of the photosynthetically formed dioxygen to carbonate.
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| 3. |
- Govindjee, Govindjee, et al.
(författare)
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David (Dave) Charles Fork (1929–2020) : a gentle human being, a great experimenter, and a passionate researcher
- 2023
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Ingår i: Photosynthesis Research. - : Springer Netherlands. - 0166-8595 .- 1573-5079. ; 155:1, s. 107-125
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We provide here an overview of the remarkable life and outstanding research of David (Dave) Charles Fork (March 4, 1929–December 13, 2021) in oxygenic photosynthesis. In the words of the late Jack Edgar Myers, he was a top ‘photosynthetiker’. His research dealt with novel findings on light absorption, excitation energy distribution, and redistribution among the two photosystems, electron transfer, and their relation to dynamic membrane change as affected by environmental changes, especially temperature. David was an attentive listener and a creative designer of experiments and instruments, and he was also great fun to work with. He is remembered here by his family, coworkers, and friends from around the world including Australia, France, Germany, Japan, Sweden, Israel, and USA.
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| 4. |
- Hussein, Rana, et al.
(författare)
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Evolutionary diversity of proton and water channels on the oxidizing side of photosystem II and their relevance to function
- 2023
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Ingår i: Photosynthesis Research. - : Springer Nature. - 0166-8595 .- 1573-5079. ; 158:2, s. 91-107
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- One of the reasons for the high efficiency and selectivity of biological catalysts arise from their ability to control the pathways of substrates and products using protein channels, and by modulating the transport in the channels using the interaction with the protein residues and the water/hydrogen-bonding network. This process is clearly demonstrated in Photosystem II (PS II), where its light-driven water oxidation reaction catalyzed by the Mn4CaO5 cluster occurs deep inside the protein complex and thus requires the transport of two water molecules to and four protons from the metal center to the bulk water. Based on the recent advances in structural studies of PS II from X-ray crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy, in this review we compare the channels that have been proposed to facilitate this mass transport in cyanobacteria, red and green algae, diatoms, and higher plants. The three major channels (O1, O4, and Cl1 channels) are present in all species investigated; however, some differences exist in the reported structures that arise from the different composition and arrangement of membrane extrinsic subunits between the species. Among the three channels, the Cl1 channel, including the proton gate, is the most conserved among all photosynthetic species. We also found at least one branch for the O1 channel in all organisms, extending all the way from Ca/O1 via the ‘water wheel’ to the lumen. However, the extending path after the water wheel varies between most species. The O4 channel is, like the Cl1 channel, highly conserved among all species while having different orientations at the end of the path near the bulk. The comparison suggests that the previously proposed functionality of the channels in T. vestitus (Ibrahim et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 117:12624–12635, 2020; Hussein et al., Nat Commun 12:6531, 2021) is conserved through the species, i.e. the O1-like channel is used for substrate water intake, and the tighter Cl1 and O4 channels for proton release. The comparison does not eliminate the potential role of O4 channel as a water intake channel. However, the highly ordered hydrogen-bonded water wire connected to the Mn4CaO5 cluster via the O4 may strongly suggest that it functions in proton release, especially during the S0 → S1 transition (Saito et al., Nat Commun 6:8488, 2015; Kern et al., Nature 563:421–425, 2018; Ibrahim et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 117:12624–12635, 2020; Sakashita et al., Phys Chem Chem Phys 22:15831–15841, 2020; Hussein et al., Nat Commun 12:6531, 2021).
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| 5. |
- Pawlak, Krzysztof, et al.
(författare)
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On the PsbS-induced quenching in the plant major light-harvesting complex LHCII studied in proteoliposomes
- 2020
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Ingår i: Photosynthesis Research. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0166-8595 .- 1573-5079. ; 144:2, s. 195-208
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) in photosynthetic organisms provides the necessary photoprotection that allows them to cope with largely and quickly varying light intensities. It involves deactivation of excited states mainly at the level of the antenna complexes of photosystem II using still largely unknown molecular mechanisms. In higher plants the main contribution to NPQ is the so-called qE-quenching, which can be switched on and off in a few seconds. This quenching mechanism is affected by the low pH-induced activation of the small membrane protein PsbS which interacts with the major light-harvesting complex of photosystem II (LHCII). We are reporting here on a mechanistic study of the PsbS-induced LHCII quenching using ultrafast time-resolved chlorophyll (Chl) fluorescence. It is shown that the PsbS/LHCII interaction in reconstituted proteoliposomes induces highly effective and specific quenching of the LHCII excitation by a factor >= 20 via Chl-Chl charge-transfer (CT) state intermediates which are weakly fluorescent. Their characteristics are very broad fluorescence bands pronouncedly red-shifted from the typical unquenched LHCII fluorescence maximum. The observation of PsbS-induced Chl-Chl CT-state emission from LHCII in the reconstituted proteoliposomes is highly reminiscent of the in vivo quenching situation and also of LHCII quenching in vitro in aggregated LHCII, indicating a similar quenching mechanism in all those situations. The PsbS mutant lacking the two proton sensing Glu residues induced significant, but much smaller, quenching than wild type. Added zeaxanthin had only minor effects on the yield of quenching in the proteoliposomes. Overall our study shows that PsbS co-reconstituted with LHCII in liposomes represents an excellent in vitro model system with characteristics that are reflecting closely the in vivo qE-quenching situation.
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| 6. |
- Shevela, Dmitriy, 1979-, et al.
(författare)
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Solar energy conversion by photosystem II : principles and structures
- 2023
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Ingår i: Photosynthesis Research. - : Springer. - 0166-8595 .- 1573-5079. ; 156, s. 279-307
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Photosynthetic water oxidation by Photosystem II (PSII) is a fascinating process because it sustains life on Earth and serves as a blue print for scalable synthetic catalysts required for renewable energy applications. The biophysical, computational, and structural description of this process, which started more than 50 years ago, has made tremendous progress over the past two decades, with its high-resolution crystal structures being available not only of the dark-stable state of PSII, but of all the semi-stable reaction intermediates and even some transient states. Here, we summarize the current knowledge on PSII with emphasis on the basic principles that govern the conversion of light energy to chemical energy in PSII, as well as on the illustration of the molecular structures that enable these reactions. The important remaining questions regarding the mechanism of biological water oxidation are highlighted, and one possible pathway for this fundamental reaction is described at a molecular level.
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| 7. |
- Zavafer, Alonso, et al.
(författare)
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Wah Soon Chow, a teacher, a friend and a colleague
- 2021
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Ingår i: Photosynthesis Research. - : Springer. - 0166-8595 .- 1573-5079. ; 149:1-2, s. 253-258
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- To finish this special issue, some friends, colleagues and students of Prof. Chow (Emeritus Professor, the Research School of Biology, the Australian National University) have written small tributes to acknowledge not only his eminent career but to describe his wonderful personality.
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