Sunbathing- this is literally summing a plant’s life. Well you cannot get all jealous of them now since that it is extremely important that they keep at it, as it helps them produce food.
Still not satisfied?
Get this, whatever you drink and eat while sunbathing comes from plants; as a result of them sunbathing!
Okay, enough chatter, plants produce food. How? Photosynthesis.
Therefore, photosynthesis is a process of utter importance. It also is a facilitator of the food chain in an ecosystem.
We have in the past, been able to mimic and reconstruct the step by step procedure involved in this process in laboratories; yet what we still have no idea about specific function of proteins involved in the process of photosynthesis, which we so often use and modify in order to coax plants to increase the yield.
However, scientists have now uncovered the secrets of one of these proteins- the CP12. CP12 is a small, redox-sensitive protein, representatives of which are found in most photosynthetic organisms, including cyanobacteria, diatoms, red and green algae, and higher plants.
This protein has been discovered to mediate the formation of a complex between glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) and phosphoribulokinase (PRK) in response to
changes in light intensity; both of which are necessary enzymes involved in the different steps of photosynthesis. Thereby helping plants respond to changing light levels. CP12 tells them to get to work when there’s light and reins them in when it’s dark.There are three forms of this protein. The protein primarily works on light intensity, it stops the activities of these enzymes in case of absence of light and without this molecule to do so, and it would cost the plant a significant amount of precious energy. But it seems like the CP12-3 is not involved in this process, but the other two subtypes of the protein, CP12-1 and CP12-2 cover for each other and are active participants.
And the unavailability of all the three would spell disaster as the plant will not be able to photosynthesize.
PRK, which is a vital workhorse that provides the raw materials for the enzyme Rubisco that turns it into carbohydrates which the plant uses to grow bigger and produce more yield, will also perish without the CP12 protein.
Therefore, this discovery can be marked important as it can add to other parallel studies or could be leveraged to study other mechanisms or activities of the plant; not to mention how beneficial it could prove in the field of agriculture.
“Improving photosynthesis has the promise of being the next frontier to dramatic boost crop yields, and for the first time there is both a molecular understanding of photosynthesis and powerful technological tools to make engineering photosynthesis a realistic and attainable goal.” Says Robert Emerson, Professor of Plant Biology at the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology.
