Photosynthetic Acclimation under Environmental Stress: Insights from Biophysics and Physiology
A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Response to Abiotic Stress and Climate Change".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2024 | Viewed by 5110
Special Issue Editors
2. Department of Biology, University of Western Ontario, 1151 Richmond Str. N., London, ON N6A 5B7, Canada
Interests: bioenergetics; chlorophyll fluorescence techniques; membrane biophysics; photosynthesis; physiological stress responses; thylakoid membranes
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: photosystem II and photosystem I; photosynthetic electron transport; photoinhibition; chlorophyll fluorescence; chloroplast ultrastructure; salinity stress on photosynthesis; entropy effects on ultrastructure of chloroplasts; ion transport in photosynthesis
Interests: biological phenomena in photosynthetic organisms; design of biosensors and biosensing methods applied to agri/aquaculture; wastewater treatment using photobioprocessing; photobiology
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Photosynthesis is a light-driven process through which photoautotrophs (cyanobacteria, algae and higher plants) convert and store solar energy in the form of energy-rich organic molecules, which, in turn, are the ultimate energy source for the growth and reproduction of all life forms on Earth. Photosynthesis spans from primary light-driven processes (light harvesting, excitation energy, charge separation) to the redox reactions that compose photosynthetic electron transport, all of which have the purpose of generating the reducing power for CO2 assimilation. The highly complex photosynthetic processes are orchestrated on the thylakoid membranes of cyanobacteria, algae and plants. Photosynthesis integrates a wide range of spatial and temporal scales that are dependent on thermodynamic/environmental constraints imposed on the photosynthetic apparatus by various abiotic/biotic (temperature, light intensity/quality, water and nutrient availability, herbivory, etc.) stresses. Various regulatory mechanisms (state transitions, non-photochemical quenching, photosynthetic control, etc.) occur within a wide timescale. All these mechanisms proceed via dynamic structural changes and/or re-organizations of the chloroplast grana/stroma, thylakoid membrane organization, thylakoid membrane dynamics and lipid phase transitions. In addition, lipid/protein interactions, the macro-organization of photosynthetic integral supercomplexes and peripheral proteins ensure the optimization of photosynthetic efficiency and protection of the photosynthetic apparatus in ever-changing environmental conditions. Considering the continuing global climate changes, it is vital to understand and predict the current and the future environmental challenges for improving photosynthesis. Such improvement will translate into an increase in productivity to meet the demand for crops of the growing world population. In the last decade, a wide range of advanced biophysical methods and innovative techniques have been developed for assessing the physiological and photosynthetic performance of various photoautotroph species from the molecular to ecosystem levels. In this Special Issue, the editors invite works aiming to advance the study of photosynthesis that shed light on some novel biophysical aspects of photosynthesis, such as the use of advanced molecular dynamics simulations in the primary processes of photosynthesis, the use of bio-spectroscopical tools such as magnetic resonance and remote hyperspectral imaging or works predicting and re-modeling the photosynthetic apparatus to enable it to better withstand the environmental challenges imposed by global climate changes. We also welcome research on physiological stress responses and their molecular mechanisms in all photosynthetic organisms.
Prof. Dr. Alexander G. Ivanov
Prof. Dr. Wah Soon Chow
Dr. Alonso Zavafer
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- photosynthesis
- biophysical techniques
- chlorophyll–protein complexes
- imaging technologies
- molecular dynamics
- thylakoid membranes
- stress responses
Planned Papers
The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.
Title: Modeling photosynthetic plasticity: cyanobacterial thylakoid microdomains as dynamic hubs of light acclimation
Authors: Tim Nies; Anna Matuszyńska
Affiliation: Computational Life Science, Department of Biology, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany
Abstract: The cyanobacterial thylakoid membrane is a complex, dynamic, layered system that adapts to various environmental conditions. Concentration and presence of pigment-protein complexes are not uniform across the membrane. Such heterogeneities exist in both lateral and radial directions. Microdomains (MD) are subcellular regions where specific lipids and proteins are concentrated, creating a distinct functional environment within the thylakoid membrane. Experiments indicate that the number of MDs per cell is highly variable in a cyanobacteria population. Additionally, increasing evidence points to a function of MDs for photosynthetic efficiency in different light conditions. Despite the advancements in experimental techniques, especially in imaging, much about the mechanisms of MD formation and their purpose in acclimation has yet to be discovered. Here, we present a conceptual coarse 2D model of the cyanobacterial thylakoid membrane that allows the study of plastoquinone diffusion in various configurations of MDs, as the transfer of electrons between PSII and cytochrome b6f is the first critical step in the photosynthetic electron transport chain. For this, we abstract and simplify the reduction of plastoquinone through the excitation transfer and actions of the phycobilisomes (PBS) and photosystem II (PSII). We perform an exhaustive Monte Carlo simulation to estimate the effects of shape, number, composition, and PBS/ PSII ratio on the diffusibility and formation of plastoquinone. By doing this, we analyze the effects of acclimation processes, which change the composition and formation of MDs, on photosynthetic efficiency. We envisage that our computational approach will become a tool that enables hypotheses testing about thylakoid microdomains of cyanobacteria without gathering all the information necessary for more physically advanced molecular dynamics simulations. Hence, our approach will be complementary to molecular dynamic study guiding research in the field of MDs.