Mapping redox switches in cyanobacteria advances use as biofuel
Chemical reactions involving reduction and oxidation, or redox, play a key role in regulating photosynthesis in plants and metabolism in animals and humans, keeping things running on an even keel. Now, in a study reported in Molecular & Cellular Proteomics, a team of scientists from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Washington University in St. Louis shed light on the role redox plays in cyanobacteria, tiny organisms with the potential to produce a lot of energy. The research team discovered more than 2,100 molecular locations inside a cyanobacterium where an amino acid known as cysteine either switched on or off by redox processes when the cyanobacteria were exposed to light or dark. The work significantly expanded the current repertoire of known redox changes within cyanobacteria.