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Lighting the way: Compelling open questions in photosynthesis research

Affiliations
  • 1The Plant Cell, American Society of Plant Biologists, USA.
  • 2Molecular Plant Biology Unit, Department of Life Technologies, University of Turku, 20014 Turku, Finland.
  • 3Centro de Estudios Fotosintéticos y Bioquímicos (CEFOBI-CONICET), Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacuticas, University of Rosario, Suipacha 570, 2000 Rosario, Argentina.
  • 4Institute of Molecular Biosciences, Goethe University Frankfurt, 60438 Frankfurt, Germany.
  • 5Division of Bioscience and Engineering, Carnegie Institution for Science, 260 Panama Street, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
  • 6Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA.
  • 7School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, UK.
  • 8Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK.
  • 9Biozentrum, University of Basel, Sptialstrasse 41, 4056 Basel, Switzerland.
  • 10Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
  • 11Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, INRAE, Université d’Evry, Université de Paris Cité, Institute of Plant Sciences Paris-Saclay (IPS2), 91190 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
  • 12Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
  • 13Molecular Plant Physiology, Institute for Cellular and Molecular Botany (IZMB), University of Bonn, Kirschallee 1, 53115 Bonn, Germany.

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July 22, 2024

Abstract

Photosynthesis-the conversion of energy from sunlight into chemical energy-is essential for life on Earth. Yet there is much we do not understand about photosynthetic energy conversion on a fundamental level: how it evolved and the extent of its diversity, its dynamics, and all the components and connections involved in its regulation. In this commentary, researchers working on fundamental aspects of photosynthesis including the light-dependent reactions, photorespiration, and C4 photosynthetic metabolism pose and discuss what they view as the most compelling open questions in their areas of research.

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