Researchers decode genetics of rare photosynthetic...(and Japan. Touchman also has an appointm...)

Blankenship said with every gene of Acaryochloris marina now sequenced and annotated, the immediate goal is to find the enzyme that causes a chemical structure change in chlorophyll d, making it different from the more common chlorophyll a, and b, but also from about nine other forms of chlorophyll.

The synthesis of chlorophyll by an organism is complex, involving 17 different steps in all, Blankenship said. Someplace near the end of this process, an enzyme transforms a vinyl group to a formyl group to make chlorophyll d. This transformation of chemical forms is not known in any other chlorophyll molecules.

Touchman and Blankenship said they have some candidate genes they will test. They plan to insert these genes into an organism that only makes chlorophyll a. If the organism learns to synthesize chlorophyll d with one of the genes, the mystery of chlorophyll d synthesis will be solved, and then the excitement will begin.

The researchers said harvesting solar power through plants or other organisms that would be genetically altered with the chlorophyll d gene could make them solar power factories that generate and store solar energy. Consider a seven-foot tall corn plant genetically tailored with the chlorophyll d gene to be expressed at the very base of the stalk. While the rest of the plant synthesized chlorophyll a, absorbing short wave light, the base is absorbing red edge light in the 710 nanometer range.

Energy could be stored in the base without competing with any other part of the plant for photosynthesis, as the rest only makes chlorophyll a. Also, the altered corn using the chlorophyll d gene could become a super plant because of its enhanced ability to harness energy from
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