Mapping photosynthetic light harvesting and light acclimation in three dimensions

Revealing photosynthetic regulation at the nanoscale - Plants and algae use light energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into sugars. The light is harvested in a heavy folded membrane, called the thylakoid, that sits inside the chloroplast. What the 3D structure of the thylakoid membrane is and how this structure can change under the influence of light is thus far hard to visualize. The researchers will develop a new method to reveal how plants and algae adapt their photosynthetic light-harvesting machinery to regulate and optimize photosynthesis under various light conditions.