Researchers Decode Genetics of Rare Photosynthetic Bacterium (uses red light)

[phantom power]

A bacterium that harvests far-red light by making a rare form of chlorophyll (chlorophyll d) has revealed its genetic secrets, according to a team of researchers who recently sequenced the bacteria’s genome.

(...)

“Chlorophyll d harvests light from a spectrum of light that few other organisms can, and that enables this organism to carve out its own special niche in the environment to pick up far-red light,” Touchman explained. “The agricultural implications could be significant. One could imagine the transfer of this biochemical mechanism to other plants where they could then use a wider range of the light spectrum and become sort of ‘plant powerhouses,’ deriving increased energy by employing this new photosynthetic pigment.”

(...)

The genome, said Blankenship, is “fat and happy. Acaryochloris marina lies down there using far red light that no one else can use. The organism has never been under very strong selection pressure to maintain a modest genome size. It’s in kind of a sweet spot. Living in this environment is what allowed it to have such dramatic genome expansion.”

Touchman said that once the gene that causes the late-step chemical transformation is found and inserted successfully into other plants or organisms, that it could potentially represent a five percent increase in available light for organisms to use.

http://news.biocompare.com/newsstory.asp?id=215179

[Markgalantier]

1. I wonder how that affects me

Nice discovery.