Abstract
Oxygenic photosynthesis has historically been considered limited to be driven by the wavelengths of visible light. However, in the last few decades, various adaptations have been discovered that allow algae, cyanobacteria, and even plants to utilize longer wavelength light in the far-red spectral range. These adaptations provide distinct advantages to the species possessing them, allowing the effective utilization of shade light under highly filtered light environments. In prokaryotes, these adaptations include the production of far-red-absorbing chlorophylls d and f and the remodeling of phycobilisome antennas and reaction centers. Eukaryotes express specialized light-harvesting pigment–protein complexes that use interactions between pigments and their protein environment to spectrally tune the absorption of chlorophyll a. If these adaptations could be applied to crop plants, a potentially significant increase in photon utilization in lower shaded leaves could be realized, improving crop yields.
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Acknowledgements
Funding for this work was from the Photosynthetic Antenna Research Center (PARC). PARC is a Department of Energy (DOE) Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) funded by Grant #DE-SC0001035. Benjamin Wolf was supported by the William H. Danforth Plant Science Fellowship.
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Wolf, B.M., Blankenship, R.E. Far-red light acclimation in diverse oxygenic photosynthetic organisms. Photosynth Res 142, 349–359 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-019-00653-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-019-00653-6