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Molecular Mechanisms of Natural and Artificial Photosynthesis
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Molecular Mechanisms of Natural and Artificial Photosynthesis

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Plant Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2022) | Viewed by 12272

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Alberto Mezzetti

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Guest Editor
Laboratoire de Réactivité de Surface, LRS, Sorbonne Université, CNRS, 4 Place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France
Interests: time-resolved FTIR spectroscopy; molecular mechanisms of photosynthesis; flavonoid photochemistry; interaction between biomolecules and silica surfaces; photoreceptors; role of water molecules and hydration layers in biological (macro)molecules; fluorescence spectroscopy; organic solvent–organic solute interactions
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue of the International Journal of Molecular Sciences is dedicated to articles investigating the mechanism, at an atomic or molecular scale, of photosynthetic reactions in natural and artificial systems. This issue is timely, given the recent tremendous scientific breakthroughs toward the complete understanding of the mechanism of several photosynthetic proteins, and the new developments of photocatalytic devices capable of performing water oxidation and CO2 reduction. All the aspects of natural and artificial photosynthesis are concerned: light harvesting, photoprotection, charge separation, proton-coupled electron transfer reactions, catalytic mechanism, dark reactions, assembly/synthesis of natural or artificial photosynthetic systems, physicochemical properties of key pigments or cofactors. The emphasis is on the reaction mechanism from a chemical/physicochemical point of view, but biochemical/biological studies focused on the molecular mechanisms of enzymes (or more complex systems such as membranes) involved in natural photosynthesis are welcome. Similarly, along with studies on synthetic molecular assemblies for artificial photosynthesis, studies on more complete devices or materials performing artificial photosynthesis are also welcome, provided that their focus is on the molecular details of the reaction mechanism.

Both experimental and theoretical manuscripts are accepted. All approaches toward an improved understanding of the molecular mechanism of photosynthesis (e.g., spectroscopic studies, site-directed mutagenesis studies, synthesis and characterization of photocatalytic molecules/supramolecular assemblies/materials, biochemical studies) will be considered.
Manuscript can be research papers, reviews, or feature/perspective articles.

Prof. Dr. Alberto Mezzetti
Guest Editor

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Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

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Keywords

  • photosystem I
  • photosystem II
  • light harvesting
  • bacterial photosynthesis
  • cytochrome b6f
  • charge separation
  • oxygen evolution
  • CO2 reduction
  • manganese cluster
  • photosynthetic reaction center
  • photoprotection

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 1493 KiB  
Article
Nitrogen-Doped Zinc Oxide for Photo-Driven Molecular Hydrogen Production
by Erik Cerrato, Alberto Privitera, Mario Chiesa, Enrico Salvadori and Maria Cristina Paganini
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23(9), 5222; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23095222 - 7 May 2022
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2098
Abstract
Due to its thermal stability, conductivity, high exciton binding energy and high electron mobility, zinc oxide is one of the most studied semiconductors in the field of photocatalysis. However, the wide bandgap requires the use of UV photons to harness its potential. A [...] Read more.
Due to its thermal stability, conductivity, high exciton binding energy and high electron mobility, zinc oxide is one of the most studied semiconductors in the field of photocatalysis. However, the wide bandgap requires the use of UV photons to harness its potential. A convenient way to appease such a limitation is the doping of the lattice with foreign atoms which, in turn, introduce localized states (defects) within the bandgap. Such localized states make the material optically active in the visible range and reduce the energy required to initiate photo-driven charge separation events. In this work, we employed a green synthetic procedure to achieve a high level of doping and have demonstrated how the thermal treatment during synthesis is crucial to select specific the microscopic (molecular) nature of the defect and, ultimately, the type of chemistry (reduction versus oxidation) that the material is able to perform. We found that low-temperature treatments produce material with higher efficiency in the water photosplitting reaction. This constitutes a further step in the establishment of N-doped ZnO as a photocatalyst for artificial photosynthesis. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Molecular Mechanisms of Natural and Artificial Photosynthesis)
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15 pages, 3299 KiB  
Article
The Energy Transfer Yield between Carotenoids and Chlorophylls in Peridinin Chlorophyll a Protein Is Robust against Mutations
by Francesco Tumbarello, Giampaolo Marcolin, Elisa Fresch, Eckhard Hofmann, Donatella Carbonera and Elisabetta Collini
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23(9), 5067; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23095067 - 3 May 2022
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2142
Abstract
The energy transfer (ET) from carotenoids (Cars) to chlorophylls (Chls) in photosynthetic complexes occurs with almost unitary efficiency thanks to the synergistic action of multiple finely tuned channels whose photophysics and dynamics are not fully elucidated yet. We investigated the energy flow from [...] Read more.
The energy transfer (ET) from carotenoids (Cars) to chlorophylls (Chls) in photosynthetic complexes occurs with almost unitary efficiency thanks to the synergistic action of multiple finely tuned channels whose photophysics and dynamics are not fully elucidated yet. We investigated the energy flow from the Car peridinin (Per) to Chl a in the peridinin chlorophyll a protein (PCP) from marine algae Amphidinium carterae by using two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy (2DES) with a 10 fs temporal resolution. Recently debated hypotheses regarding the S2-to-S1 relaxation of the Car via a conical intersection and the involvement of possible intermediate states in the ET were examined. The comparison with an N89L mutant carrying the Per donor in a lower-polarity environment helped us unveil relevant details on the mechanisms through which excitation was transferred: the ET yield was conserved even when a mutation perturbed the optimization of the system thanks to the coexistence of multiple channels exploited during the process. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Molecular Mechanisms of Natural and Artificial Photosynthesis)
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13 pages, 1724 KiB  
Article
Characterization of the Wave Phenomenon in Flash-Induced Fluorescence Relaxation and Its Application to Study Cyclic Electron Pathways in Microalgae
by Priyanka Pradeep Patil, Imre Vass and Milán Szabó
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23(9), 4927; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23094927 - 28 Apr 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2146
Abstract
Photosynthesis is a series of redox reactions, in which several electron transport processes operate to provide the energetic balance of light harvesting. In addition to linear electron flow, which ensures the basic functions of photosynthetic productivity and carbon fixation, alternative electron transport pathways [...] Read more.
Photosynthesis is a series of redox reactions, in which several electron transport processes operate to provide the energetic balance of light harvesting. In addition to linear electron flow, which ensures the basic functions of photosynthetic productivity and carbon fixation, alternative electron transport pathways operate, such as the cyclic electron flow (CEF), which play a role in the fine tuning of photosynthesis and balancing the ATP/NADPH ratio under stress conditions. In this work, we characterized the electron transport processes in microalgae species that have high relevance in applied research and industry (e.g., Chlorella sorokiniana, Haematococcus pluvialis, Dunaliella salina, Nannochloropsis sp.) by using flash-induced fluorescence relaxation kinetics. We found that a wave phenomenon appeared in the fluorescence relaxation profiles of microalgae to different extents; it was remarkable in the red cells of H. pluvialis, D. salina and C. sorokiniana, but it was absent in green cells of H. pluvialis and N. limnetica. Furthermore, in microalgae, unlike in cyanobacteria, the appearance of the wave required the partial decrease in the activity of Photosystem II, because the relatively high Photosystem II/Photosystem I ratio in microalgae prevented the enhanced oxidation of the plastoquinone pool. The wave phenomenon was shown to be related to the antimycin A-sensitive pathway of CEF in C. sorokiniana but not in other species. Therefore, the fluorescence wave phenomenon appears to be a species-specific indicator of the redox reactions of the plastoquinone pool and certain pathways of cyclic electron flow. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Molecular Mechanisms of Natural and Artificial Photosynthesis)
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13 pages, 1984 KiB  
Article
Violaxanthin and Zeaxanthin May Replace Lutein at the L1 Site of LHCII, Conserving the Interactions with Surrounding Chlorophylls and the Capability of Triplet–Triplet Energy Transfer
by Donatella Carbonera, Alessandro Agostini, Marco Bortolus, Luca Dall’Osto and Roberto Bassi
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23(9), 4812; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23094812 - 27 Apr 2022
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2193
Abstract
Carotenoids represent the first line of defence of photosystems against singlet oxygen (1O2) toxicity, because of their capacity to quench the chlorophyll triplet state (3Chl) through a physical mechanism based on the transfer of triplet excitation (triplet–triplet [...] Read more.
Carotenoids represent the first line of defence of photosystems against singlet oxygen (1O2) toxicity, because of their capacity to quench the chlorophyll triplet state (3Chl) through a physical mechanism based on the transfer of triplet excitation (triplet–triplet energy transfer, TTET). In previous works, we showed that the antenna LHCII is characterised by a robust photoprotective mechanism, able to adapt to the removal of individual chlorophylls while maintaining a remarkable capacity for 3Chl quenching. In this work, we investigated the effects on this quenching induced in LHCII by the replacement of the lutein bound at the L1 site with violaxanthin and zeaxanthin. We studied LHCII isolated from the Arabidopsis thaliana mutants lut2—in which lutein is replaced by violaxanthin—and lut2 npq2, in which all xanthophylls are replaced constitutively by zeaxanthin. We characterised the photophysics of these systems via optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) and time-resolved electron paramagnetic resonance (TR-EPR). We concluded that, in LHCII, lutein-binding sites have conserved characteristics, and ensure efficient TTET regardless of the identity of the carotenoid accommodated. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Molecular Mechanisms of Natural and Artificial Photosynthesis)
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18 pages, 1461 KiB  
Article
Insights into Regulation of C2 and C4 Photosynthesis in Amaranthaceae/Chenopodiaceae Using RNA-Seq
by Christian Siadjeu, Maximilian Lauterbach and Gudrun Kadereit
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2021, 22(22), 12120; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms222212120 - 9 Nov 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2702
Abstract
Amaranthaceae (incl. Chenopodiaceae) shows an immense diversity of C4 syndromes. More than 15 independent origins of C4 photosynthesis, and the largest number of C4 species in eudicots signify the importance of this angiosperm lineage in C4 evolution. Here, [...] Read more.
Amaranthaceae (incl. Chenopodiaceae) shows an immense diversity of C4 syndromes. More than 15 independent origins of C4 photosynthesis, and the largest number of C4 species in eudicots signify the importance of this angiosperm lineage in C4 evolution. Here, we conduct RNA-Seq followed by comparative transcriptome analysis of three species from Camphorosmeae representing related clades with different photosynthetic types: Threlkeldia diffusa (C3), Sedobassia sedoides (C2), and Bassia prostrata (C4). Results show that B. prostrata belongs to the NADP-ME type and core genes encoding for C4 cycle are significantly upregulated when compared with Sed. sedoides and T. diffusa. Sedobassia sedoides and B. prostrata share a number of upregulated C4-related genes; however, two C4 transporters (DIT and TPT) are found significantly upregulated only in Sed. sedoides. Combined analysis of transcription factors (TFs) of the closely related lineages (Camphorosmeae and Salsoleae) revealed that no C3-specific TFs are higher in C2 species compared with C4 species; instead, the C2 species show their own set of upregulated TFs. Taken together, our study indicates that the hypothesis of the C2 photosynthesis as a proxy towards C4 photosynthesis is questionable in Sed. sedoides and more in favour of an independent evolutionary stable state. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Molecular Mechanisms of Natural and Artificial Photosynthesis)
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