A systems-wide understanding of photosynthetic acclimation in algae and higher plants

Abstract

The ability of phototrophs to colonise different environments relies on robust protection against oxidative stress, a critical requirement for the successful evolutionary transition from water to land. Photosynthetic organisms have developed numerous strategies to adapt their photosynthetic apparatus to changing light conditions in order to optimise their photosynthetic yield, which is crucial for life on Earth to exist. Photosynthetic acclimation is an excellent example of the complexity of biological systems, where highly diverse processes, ranging from electron excitation over protein protonation to enzymatic processes coupling ion gradients with biosynthetic activity, interact on drastically different timescales from picoseconds to hours. Efficient functioning of the photosynthetic apparatus and its protection is paramount for efficient downstream processes, including metabolism and growth. Modern experimental techniques can be successfully integrated with theoretical and mathematical models to promote our understanding of underlying mechanisms and principles. This review aims to provide a retrospective analysis of multidisciplinary photosynthetic acclimation research carried out by members of the Marie Curie Initial Training Project, AccliPhot, placing the results in a wider context. The review also highlights the applicability of photosynthetic organisms for industry, particularly with regards to the cultivation of microalgae. It intends to demonstrate how theoretical concepts can successfully complement experimental studies broadening our knowledge of common principles in acclimation processes in photosynthetic organisms, as well as in the field of applied microalgal biotechnology.

Diversity in Xanthophyll Cycle Pigments Content and Related Nonphotochemical Quenching (NPQ) Among Microalgae: Implications for Growth Strategy and Ecology

“…Thanks to the fact they can now be easily genetically and experimentally manipulated (Gruber and Kroth , Moejes et al. , Tirichine et al. ), microalgae have been often used to understand the influence of growth environmental conditions on the functional diversity of XC‐related NPQ processes.…”

“…A better knowledge of the impact of XC‐NPQ on metabolism and growth, and its functional diversity in microalgae (Goss and Lepetit ) will likely provide benefit to industrial microalgal production (Moejes et al. ) and to the generation of engineered cells for the bioproduction of molecules of interest such as biofuels (Hess et al. , Wagner et al.…”

An algal enzyme required for biosynthesis of the most abundant marine carotenoids

“…Under exceptional conditions that promote high VDE activity in combi nation with substantial de novo synthesis of carotenoids, algae using the diadinoxanthin cycle may transiently accumulate also the pigments of the violaxanthin cycle (15). Recent experimental evidence, however, suggests that in these algae zeaxanthin is in effective in mediating photoprotection and may even interfere with the photoprotective function of diatoxanthin (42,43).…”

Mutation of the Atypical Kinase ABC1K3 Partially Rescues the PROTON GRADIENT REGULATION 6 Phenotype in Arabidopsis thaliana

“…Photo oxidative stress also triggers other responses allowing the chloroplast to alleviate the damage. These responses involve regulation of gene expression (Pfannschmidt et al, 1999;Pfannschmidt, 2003), structural changes of the thylakoids (Moejes et al, 2017) and synthesis of antioxidant molecules (Munné-Bosch and Alegre, 2002;Kanwischer et al, 2005;Gruszka et al, 2008;Nowicka and Kruk, 2012;Block et al, 2013;Martinis et al, 2014;Ksas et al, 2015Ksas et al, , 2018Spicher et al, 2016;Ferretti et al, 2018).…”