Nature & Environment
Scientists Capture Snapshots of Water Splitting in Photosynthesis for the First Time Ever
Catherine Griffin
First Posted: Jul 10, 2014 07:12 AM EDT
What's so special about photosynthesis? It's the common process that every plant goes through, and it's crucial for life on Earth. Now, though, scientists have managed an extraordinary feat. They've taken the first snapshots of photosynthesis in action as it splits water into protons, electrons and oxygen.
Photosynthesis is one of the fundamental processes of life on Earth. If there was no photosynthesis, our planet would lack its oxygen-rich atmosphere. In fact, it's the "invention" of the water splitting process in Photosystem II (PSII) about 2.5 billion years ago that led to the atmospheric composition of today.
"This study is the first step towards our ultimate goal of unraveling the secrets of water splitting and obtaining molecular movies of biomolecules," said Petra Fromme, the senior author of the new study, in a news release.
So why bother unraveling the secrets of water splitting? Understanding the mechanism is essential for the development of artificial systems that mimic and surpass the efficiency of natural systems. In the case of plants, it may be possible to create an "artificial leaf" that could actually generate power.
"A crucial problem facing our Center for Bio-Inspired Fuel Production (Bisfuel) at ASU and similar research groups around the world is discovering an efficient, inexpensive catalyst for oxidizing water to oxygen gas, hydrogen ions and electrons," said Devens Gust, the center's director. "Photosynthetic organisms already know how to do this, and we need to know the details of how photosynthesis carries out the process using abundant manganese and calcium."
In order to get a closer look at photosynthesis, the researchers used the world's most powerful X-ray laser, named LCLS. Extremely fast femtosecond laser pulses recorded snapshots of the PSII crystals before they exploded in the X-ray beam. This allowed that scientists to gather snapshots of the water-splitting process, damage-free.
"This is a major step toward the goal of making a movie of the molecular machine responsible for photosynthesis, the process by which plants make the oxygen we breathe, from sunlight and water," said John Spence, a team member involved in the new study.
The findings are published in the journal Nature.
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First Posted: Jul 10, 2014 07:12 AM EDT
What's so special about photosynthesis? It's the common process that every plant goes through, and it's crucial for life on Earth. Now, though, scientists have managed an extraordinary feat. They've taken the first snapshots of photosynthesis in action as it splits water into protons, electrons and oxygen.
Photosynthesis is one of the fundamental processes of life on Earth. If there was no photosynthesis, our planet would lack its oxygen-rich atmosphere. In fact, it's the "invention" of the water splitting process in Photosystem II (PSII) about 2.5 billion years ago that led to the atmospheric composition of today.
"This study is the first step towards our ultimate goal of unraveling the secrets of water splitting and obtaining molecular movies of biomolecules," said Petra Fromme, the senior author of the new study, in a news release.
So why bother unraveling the secrets of water splitting? Understanding the mechanism is essential for the development of artificial systems that mimic and surpass the efficiency of natural systems. In the case of plants, it may be possible to create an "artificial leaf" that could actually generate power.
"A crucial problem facing our Center for Bio-Inspired Fuel Production (Bisfuel) at ASU and similar research groups around the world is discovering an efficient, inexpensive catalyst for oxidizing water to oxygen gas, hydrogen ions and electrons," said Devens Gust, the center's director. "Photosynthetic organisms already know how to do this, and we need to know the details of how photosynthesis carries out the process using abundant manganese and calcium."
In order to get a closer look at photosynthesis, the researchers used the world's most powerful X-ray laser, named LCLS. Extremely fast femtosecond laser pulses recorded snapshots of the PSII crystals before they exploded in the X-ray beam. This allowed that scientists to gather snapshots of the water-splitting process, damage-free.
"This is a major step toward the goal of making a movie of the molecular machine responsible for photosynthesis, the process by which plants make the oxygen we breathe, from sunlight and water," said John Spence, a team member involved in the new study.
The findings are published in the journal Nature.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone