From light to life: an interdisciplinary journey into photosynthetic activity.

Abstract

On the snowy slopes of Les Diablerets, some skiers seemed to be outlining the Z‐scheme of photosynthetic electron flow: up the PSII chair lift to Les Mazots, down the b6f trail and up the PSI chair lift to the summit at Meilleret. Others were depicting cyclic flow by repeatedly riding the PSI lift to Meilleret and returning to its base via the b6f trail. But the flow of skiers did not generate a proton gradient, and if any energy was captured it was in the form of renewed enthusiasm to attend the sessions of the EMBO workshop entitled: ‘Molecular Genetics and Biophysical Aspects of Photosynthesis’, which was organized by J.‐D. Rochaix, W. Rutherford and F.‐A. Wollman and took place from 26 to 29 January 2003. ![][1] One intention of the organizers of the EMBO workshop on Molecular Genetics and Biophysical Aspects of Photosynthesis was to bring together scientists with different backgrounds and experimental approaches. Indeed, the meeting proved that photosynthesis is a privileged field of interdisciplinary research, in which each of the many methods used in its investigation (whether biophysical, biochemical or biological) provides measurements on a timescale appropriate to the vastly different turnover rates for the process it investigates. As pointed out in one of the opening lectures by L. Mets (Chicago, IL, USA), these can vary in range from fractions of picoseconds for the energy transfer between the chlorophylls in the light‐harvesting antennae to days or years for growth and development. Genetic analysis stood out at the meeting because, in synergy with other approaches, it contributes to our understanding across a vast range of these timescales. Indeed, the analysis of mutant phenotypes was a recurrent theme throughout the meeting (a typical example is shown in Fig. 1). Figure 1. Chlorophyll fluorescence imaging of photosynthetic mutants. ( A … [1]: /embed/graphic-1.gif