How phytoplankton rule the oceans
Photosynthesis is a unique biological process that has permitted the colonization of land and sea by plants and phytoplankton respectively. While the mechanisms of photosynthesis in plants are well understood, scientists are only now beginning to elucidate how the process developed in phytoplankton. In collaboration with scientists from several countries,1 researchers from the Cell and Plant Physiology Laboratory (CNRS/CEA/UGA/Inra),2 the Institut de Biologie Structurale (CNRS/CEA/UGA), the LEMMA Advanced Electron Microscopy Laboratory (CEA/UGA),3 and the Laboratory of Membrane and Molecular Physiology of the Chloroplast (CNRS/UPMC) have proposed a structural model of the photosynthetic process in phytoplankton, based on studies of the diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum . Their findings are published on June 20, 2017. Photosynthesis is a remarkable mechanism for the transformation of light energy into chemical energy. Two miniature photochemical power plants make it possible: photosystem I (PSI) and photosystem II (PSII). But ideal conditions demand that PSI and PSII be kept apart, to avoid any “short circuits” that would make photosynthesis less effective.
