Neutron scattering in photosynthesis research: recent advances and perspectives for testing crop plants

Gergely Nagy, Győző Garab

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

The photosynthetic performance of crop plants under a variety of environmental factors and stress conditions, at the fundamental level, depends largely on the organization and structural flexibility of thylakoid membranes. These highly organized membranes accommodate virtually all protein complexes and additional compounds carrying out the light reactions of photosynthesis. Most regulatory mechanisms fine-tuning the photosynthetic functions affect the organization of thylakoid membranes at different levels of the structural complexity. In order to monitor these reorganizations, non-invasive techniques are of special value. On the mesoscopic scale, small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) has been shown to deliver statistically and spatially averaged information on the periodic organization of the thylakoid membranes in vivo and/or, in isolated thylakoids, under physiologically relevant conditions, without fixation or staining. More importantly, SANS investigations have revealed rapid reversible reorganizations on the timescale of several seconds and minutes. In this paper, we give a short introduction into the basics of SANS technique, advantages and limitations, and briefly overview recent advances and potential applications of this technique in the physiology and biotechnology of crop plants. We also discuss future perspectives of neutron crystallography and different neutron scattering techniques, which are anticipated to become more accessible and of more use in photosynthesis research at new facilities with higher fluxes and innovative instrumentation.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)41-49
Number of pages9
JournalPhotosynthesis Research
Volume150
Issue number1-3
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2021

Funding

Open access funding provided by Biological Research Center. The authors would like to thank Dr. Laura-Roxana Stingaciu (ORNL) for critical reading of the manuscript. This work was supported by grants of the National Research Development and Innovation Office of Hungary (OTKA KH 124985 and K 128679) and of the Czech Science Foundation (GACR 19-13637S) to G.G. G.N. was, in part, supported by the János Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and by the ÚNKP-19-4 New National Excellence Program of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology. A portion of this research used resources at the Spallation Neutron Source, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Open access funding provided by Biological Research Center. The authors would like to thank Dr. Laura-Roxana Stingaciu (ORNL) for critical reading of the manuscript. This work was supported by grants of the National Research Development and Innovation Office of Hungary (OTKA KH 124985 and K 128679) and of the Czech Science Foundation (GACR 19-13637S) to G.G. G.N. was, in part, supported by the J?nos Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and by the ?NKP-19-4 New National Excellence Program of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology. A portion of this research used resources at the Spallation Neutron Source, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Keywords

  • Macro-organization
  • Neutron scattering
  • Regulatory mechanisms
  • Structural flexibility
  • Thylakoid membrane

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