“The more we learn about how nature does it, the closer we get to using those same principles in human-made processes, including ideas for artificial photosynthesis as a clean and sustainable energy source,” said co-author Jan Kern, a scientist at Berkeley Lab.Ĭo-author Junko Yano, also at Berkeley Lab, said, “Photosystem II is giving us the blueprint for how to optimize our clean energy sources and avoid dead ends and dangerous side products that damage the system. The results, published today in Nature, shed light on how nature has optimized photosynthesis and are helping scientists develop artificial photosynthetic systems that mimic photosynthesis to harvest natural sunlight to convert carbon dioxide into hydrogen and carbon-based fuels.
The data reveal an intermediate reaction step that had not been observed before. Using SLAC’s Linac Coherent Light Source ( LCLS ) and the SPring-8 Angstrom Compact free electron LAser (SACLA) in Japan, they captured for the first time in atomic detail what happens in the final moments leading up to the release of breathable oxygen. Now researchers from the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, together with collaborators from Uppsala University, Humboldt University, and other institutions have succeeded in cracking a key secret of Photosystem II.
One such mystery is how Photosystem II, a protein complex in plants, algae and cyanobacteria, harvests energy from sunlight and uses it to split water, producing the oxygen we breathe. Photosynthesis plays a crucial role in shaping and sustaining life on Earth, yet many aspects of the process remain a mystery.
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