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not peer-reviewed) is the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.The copyright holder for this preprint (which was . http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/281386 doi: bioRxiv preprint first posted online Mar. 13, 2018; Cyanobacteria survived the Foton-M4 space mission 2 It is now generally accepted that cyanobacteria are responsible for production of oxygen, which led to the so-called "Great Oxygenation Event". Appearance of dioxygen in Earth's atmosphere resulted in formation of the ozone layer and the ionosphere, which caused significant reduction of ionizing radiation levels at the surface of our planet. This event not only increased biological diversity but also canceled the urgency of previously developed mechanisms of DNA protection, which allowed to survive and develop in harsh environmental conditions including exposure to cosmic rays. In order to test the hypothesis if one of the oldest organisms on Earth retained ancient protection mechanisms, we studied the effect of ionizing radiation (IoR, here: α-particles with a kinetic energy of about 30 MeV) and space flight during the mission of the Foton-M4 satellite on cells of Synechocystis sp. PCC6803. By analyzing spectral and functional characteristics of photosynthetic membranes we revealed numerous similarities between cells exposed to IoR and after the space mission. In both cases, we found that excitation energy transfer from phycobilisomes to photosystems was interrupted and the concentration of phycobiliproteins was significantly reduced. Although photosynthetic activity was severely suppressed, the effect was reversible and the cells were able to rapidly recover from stress under normal conditions.Moreover, in vitro experiments demonstrated that the effect of IoR on isolated phycobilisomes was completely different from such in vivo. These observations suggest that the actual existence and the uncoupling of phycobilisomes under irradiation stress could play specific role not only in photo-, but also in radioprotection, which was crucial for early stages of evolution and the development of Life on Earth.

Semiconductor nanocrystals (CdSe/ZnS quantum dots, QDs) were used as inorganic focusing antenna, allowing for the enhancement of fluorescence and photosensitizing activity of polycationic aluminum phthalocyanines (PCs). It was found that QDs form stable complexes with PCs in aqueous solutions due to electrostatic interactions. In such hybrid complexes, we observed highly efficient nonradiative energy transfer from QD to PC, leading to a sharp increase in the effective absorption cross section of PC in the absorption bands of the CdSe/ZnS quantum dots. When hybrid complexes are excited within these bands, the intensity of PC fluorescence and the rate of photosensitized singlet oxygen generation increases significantly (up to 500 and 350%, correspondingly) compared to free PC at the same concentration. The observed effect is of interest for modeling primary stages of photosynthesis and increasing photosensitizing activity of dyes used in photodynamic therapy.