Artificial regulation of state transition for augmenting plant photosynthesis using synthetic light-harvesting polymer materials.

Zhou, Xin; Zeng, Yue; Tang, Yongyan; Huang, Yiming; Lv, Fengting; Liu, Libing; Wang, Shu · Sci Adv · 2020

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Artificial regulation of state transition between photosystem I (PSI) and PSII will be a smart and promising way to improve efficiency of natural photosynthesis. In this work, we found that a synthetic light-harvesting polymer [poly(boron-dipyrromethene-<i>co</i>-fluorene) (PBF)] with green light absorption and far-red emission could improve PSI activity of algae <i>Chlorella pyrenoidosa</i>, followed by further upgrading PSII activity to augment natural photosynthesis. For light-dependent reactions, PBF accelerated photosynthetic electron transfer, and the productions of oxygen, ATP and NADPH were increased by 120, 97, and 76%, respectively. For light-independent reactions, the RuBisCO activity was enhanced by 1.5-fold, while the expression levels of <i>rbcL</i> encoding RuBisCO and <i>prk</i> encoding phosphoribulokinase were up-regulated by 2.6 and 1.5-fold, respectively. Furthermore, PBF could be absorbed by the <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i> to speed up cell mitosis and enhance photosynthesis. By improving the efficiency of natural photosynthesis, synthetic light-harvesting polymer materials show promising potential applications for biofuel production.