Scientists Discover New Pathway in Photosynthesis that Could Lead to Better Renewable Energy ☀️🌱

A team of international physicists, chemists, and biologists, led by the University of Cambridge has made a breakthrough in understanding the early stages of photosynthesis, the process by which plants, algae, and some bacteria convert sunlight into energy. Using ultrafast spectroscopic techniques, the researchers were able to study photosynthesis in live cells at an ultrafast timescale, a millionth of a millionth of a second, and discovered that the chemicals that can extract electrons from the molecular structures responsible for photosynthesis do so at the initial stages rather than much later, as was previously believed. This discovery could lead to new ways of generating clean fuel and renewable energy.

The researchers found that this "rewiring" of photosynthesis could improve how it deals with excess energy and create new and more efficient ways of using its power. The protein scaffold where the initial chemical reactions of photosynthesis take place was found to be "leaky," allowing electrons to escape. This could help plants protect themselves from damage caused by bright or rapidly changing light.

The researchers used a technique called ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy to study how a ring-shaped molecule called a quinone behaves in photosynthetic cyanobacteria. They found that the molecule interplays with the photosynthetic machinery at an early point of photosynthesis, a whole new pathway that they opened the black box of photosynthesis further.

The ability to regulate photosynthesis could mean that crops could be made more able to tolerate intense sunlight. The researchers say that being able to extract charges at an earlier point in the process of photosynthesis could make the process more efficient when manipulating photosynthetic pathways to generate clean fuels from the Sun.

The use of ultrafast spectroscopy has allowed the researchers to understand more about the early events in photosynthesis, which is one of the most well-known and well-studied processes on Earth, and has opened up remarkable opportunities for new discoveries on how nature operates. The findings are reported in the journal Nature.