Plants are susceptible to stress, and with the global impact of climate change and humanity’s growing demand for food, it’s crucial to understand what causes plant stress and stress tolerance. When plants absorb excess light energy during photosynthesis, reactive oxygen species are produced, potentially causing oxidative stress that damages important structures. Plants can suppress the production of reactive oxygen species by oxidizing P700 (the reaction center chlorophyll in photosystem I). A new study has revealed more about this vital process: the cyclic electron flow induced by P700 oxidation is an electric charge recombination occurring in photosystem I. These findings were published on June 5 in Plants.
The research was led by Professor Chikahiro Miyake, Assistant Professor Shinya Wada, and Kanae Kadota (Kobe University), in collaboration with Professor Amane Makino (Tohoku University) and Associate Professor Yuji Suzuki (Iwate University).
