Project description
New approach to study light-harvesting complexes in plants
Plants rely on light-harvesting complexes (LHC) to fuel photosynthesis and safely vent excess energy as heat, shielding delicate tissues from light-induced stress. However, it is not clear what triggers the protective switch in LHCs due to limited experimental tools in the field. The ERC-funded MARIONETTE project aims to fill this knowledge gap by using a variety of novel methodologies and solutions to overcome previous limitations in the study of LHCs. Specifically, it will use single-molecule optical tweezers resolved in force and fluorescence, a novel ultrafast multipulse spectroscopic tool, and integrate ad hoc molecular dynamics simulations to advance and deepen our understanding.
Objective
Sunlight is a source of life for plants but also of photodamage. To harvest solar energy “safely”, plants have developed a nanoscale mechanism controlled by small proteins which bind pigments, called light-harvesting complexes (LHCs). At low light intensities, the LHCs harvest and transport solar energy to the sites of photochemistry. Under intense light, LHCs switch function to dissipate excess energy as heat. Through this photoprotective switch, the LHCs efficiently protect plants from photodamage.
Yet, how do plants activate the LHC photoprotective switch? Current models assume that the switch is driven by protein conformational changes of the LHCs, regulated by the environment through pH changes and interactions with protein and cofactors. However, no experimental tool implemented in the field of photosynthesis allows to identify the conformational changes responsible of photoprotection and to determine how the environment controls them – limiting our mechanistic understanding of light-harvesting regulation in plants.
I will tackle this challenge by:
1) Pioneering the study of LHC nanomechanics via single-molecule optical tweezers, resolved in force and fluorescence, to track LHC conformational changes at single-residue level and identify those driving the photoprotective switch.
2) Leveraging a novel ultrafast multipulse spectroscopic tool — just developed by my group — to rapidly control environmental changes and determine the intermediate steps in the photoprotective switch of the LHCs.
3) Integrating ad hoc molecular dynamics simulations to map how external physiological factors tune the conformational landscape of the LHCs.
By implementing a novel optical and computational toolkit, I will advance our understanding of how plants regulate light harvesting at the nanoscale, while establishing a new framework in photosynthesis and photobiology to determine how structure and environment control the function of photosensory proteins across all life domains.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences chemical sciences physical chemistry photochemistry
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules proteins
- natural sciences biological sciences botany
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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(opens in new window) ERC-2025-STG
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08860 Castelldefels
Spain
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