New research pinpointed a "molecular mechanism" that spurs the process of light harvesting which allows photosynthetic organisms to thrive as sunlight levels change.
"Through our approach, we are able to have a better understanding of the natural designs of light harvesting systems, especially how the same molecular machinery can perform efficient light harvesting at low light while safely dissipating excess excitation energy at high light," Hsiang-Yu Yang, a graduate student, said in a Biophysical Society news release.
Probing the process of light harvesting on this level could allow researchers to move towards more efficient solar cells.
The research team has been looking at photosynthetic antenna proteins with the Anti-Brownian ELectrokinetic (ABEL) trap; the method has allowed them to discover "new states of the light harvesting complexes with different degrees of quenching," the news release reported.
"By analyzing the transition between these states in a bacterial antenna protein," Gabriela Schlau-Cohen, a postdoc in W.E. Moerner's research group at Stanford University, said in the news release. "We found a process that may be one of the molecular mechanisms of photoprotection, or the way in which the organism protects itself from damage by excess light."
The team hopes to gain more insight into the "natural designs" associated with light harvesting. The team would also like to see if the process is present in higher plants.
"Thus, they are extending their studies to look at photosynthetic proteins from green plants. Eventually, understanding these general principles may help in developing or improving the building of artificial light-harvesting devices," the news release reported.
The researchers will make their presentations, titled "Elucidation of the Photodynamics of Single Photosynthetic LH2 Complexes in Solution" and "Single-molecule Exploration of the Photodynamics of LHCII Complexes in Solution," at the 58th Annual Biophysical Society Meeting.
