An international team of scientists led by researcher Petra Fromme from Arizona State University (USA) has managed to capture for the first time a crucial step in photosynthesis in action: the division of water .
Scientists have achieved this scientific milestone by using the world's most powerful X-ray flashlight , which is located at the National Accelerator Laboratory SLAC in Menlo Park (USA). With it, still images of photosystem II have been recorded, which divides water into hydrogen and oxygen.
To do this, the experts grew tiny nanocrystals of the complete photosystem II of bacteria that uses photosynthesis. These crystals were illuminated with a visible laser to initiate the process of dissociation of water, which normally triggers sunlight. Thus, thanks to the X-ray laser, they were able to monitor how the molecular structure of the photosystem II complex changed during the process.
The water division process goes through four steps. " This is the first scene in a molecular movie showing the light-driven dissociation of water in photosystem II, the mechanism that generates all the oxygen in the atmosphere," says Fromme.
"A deeper understanding of photosynthesis could, for example, help develop better solar cells and could advance the search for the holy grail of biochemistry, artificial photosynthesis," says study co-author Henry Chapman.
The research has been published in the journal Nature .
