Abstract
Here, we provide a summary of the 2017 Gordon Research Conference on Photosynthesis: “Photosynthetic plasticity: from the environment to synthetic systems”. This conference was held at the Grand Summit Resort Hotel at Sunday River, Newry, Maine, USA, from July 16 to 21, 2017. We have also included here a brief description of the Gordon Research Seminar (for students and post-docs) held during 2 days preceding this conference. Following the conclusion of the conference’s scientific program, four young scientists (Han Bao, Vivek Tiwari, Setsuko Wakao, and Usha Lingappa) were recognized for their research presentations, each of whom received a book as a gift from one of us (Govindjee). Having chaired the 2015 Gordon Research Conference on Photosynthesis in 2015, Fabrice Rappaport, who lost his fight against cancer in January 2016, was remembered for his profound impact on the field of photosynthesis research.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Source: Bottom left A staff member of the Grand Summit Resort Hotel at Sunday River; all others from the archives of Govindjee
Source: Gordon Research Conference; reproduced with permission
Source: Middle left Rebekka Wachter, Middle center Christopher Howe; all others from the archives of Govindjee
Source: Bottom Chihiro Azai; all others from the archives of Govindjee
Source: Bottom right Benjamin Endelman; all others from the archives of Govindjee
Source: Top center Shai Saroussi; all others from the archives of Govindjee
Source: Photos provided by each of the awardees
References
Bao H, Burnap RL (2015) Structural rearrangements preceding dioxygen formation by the water oxidation complex of photosystem II. Proc Natl Acad Sci 112:E6139–E6147. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1512008112
Bao H, Melnicki MR, Kerfeld CA (2017a) Structure and functions of orange carotenoid protein homologs in cyanobacteria. Curr Opin Plant Biol 37:1–9. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.14670
Bao H, Melnicki MR, Pawlowski EG et al (2017b) Additional families of orange carotenoid proteins in the photoprotective system of cyanobacteria. Nat Plants. https://doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2017.89
Bayro-Kaiser V, Nelson N (2016) Temperature-sensitive PSII: a novel approach for sustained photosynthetic hydrogen production. Photosynth Res 130:113–121. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-016-0232-3
Buchert F, Bailleul B, Hisabori T (2017) A γ-subunit point mutation in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii chloroplast F1Fo-ATP synthase confers tolerance to reactive oxygen species. Biochim Biophys Acta Bioenerg 1858:966–974. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbabio.2017.09.001
Dent RM (2005) Functional genomics of eukaryotic photosynthesis using insertional mutagenesis of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Plant Physiol 137:545–556. https://doi.org/10.1104/pp.104.055244
Dent RM, Sharifi MN, Malnoë A et al (2015) Large-scale insertional mutagenesis of Chlamydomonas supports phylogenomic functional prediction of photosynthetic genes and analysis of classical acetate-requiring mutants. Plant J 82:337–351. https://doi.org/10.1111/tpj.12806
Gisriel C, Sarrou I, Ferlez BH et al (2017) Structure of a symmetric photosynthetic reaction center-photosystem. Science 357:1021–1025. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aan5611
Govindjee, Rutherford AW, Britt RD (2007) Four young research investigators were honored at the 2006 Gordon Research Conference on Photosynthesis. Photosynth Res 92:137–138. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-006-9112-6
Govindjee, Ananyev GM, Savikhin S (2011) Young research investigators honored at the 2011 Gordon research conference on photosynthesis: ambiance and a perspective. Photosynth Res 110:143–149. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-011-9706-5
Govindjee, Grossman AR, Bhaya D (2016) Gordon research conference on the dynamics and regulation of photosynthesis: from the origin of bio-catalysis to innovative solar conversion. Photosynth Res 127:379–389. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-015-0187-9
Ho M-Y, Shen G, Canniffe DP et al (2016) Light-dependent chlorophyll f synthase is a highly divergent paralog of PsbA of photosystem II. Science 353(6302) aaf 9178–1 through aaf 9178-7; summary is on p 886. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaf9178-
Hochmal AK, Zinzius K, Charoenwattanasatien R et al (2016) Calredoxin represents a novel type of calcium-dependent sensor-responder connected to redox regulation in the chloroplast. Nat Commun 7:11847
Johnson JE, Webb SM, Thomas K et al (2013) Manganese-oxidizing photosynthesis before the rise of cyanobacteria. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 110:11238–11243. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1305530110
Rappaport F, Malnoë A, Govindjee (2015) Gordon research conference on photosynthesis: from evolution of fundamental mechanisms to radical re-engineering. Photosynth Res 123:213–223. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-014-0058-9
Tiwari V (2014) Non-adiabatic mechanism for photosynthetic energy transfer and all-optical determination of concentration using femtosecond lasers. PhD thesis in chemistry and biochemistry, University of Colorado at Boulder
Tiwari V, Peters WK, Jonas DM (2013) Electronic resonance with anticorrelated pigment vibrations drives photosynthetic energy transfer outside the adiabatic framework. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 110:1203–1208. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1211157110
Wu PG, Brand L (1994) Resonance energy transfer: methods and applications. Anal Biochem 218:1–13
Acknowledgements
We express our sincerest gratitude to the attendees of the 2017 GRC on Photosynthesis for their support in the advancement of discovery within the field of photosynthesis research. We thank Arthur Grossman for chairing the 2017 GRC. Han Bao, Vivek Tiwari, Setsuko Wakao, and Usha Lingappa generously provided descriptions of their own research. We also thank Gordon Research Conferences, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, CellPRess, Synthetic Genomics, The Plant Cell, Agrisera, PhytoAB, the International Society of Photosynthesis Research, Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, Bay Instrument, WALZ Li-COR, bioz, and BioLogic for sponsoring scientists in attending the GRC and GRS. Photographs used in the figures were provided by Juliana Artier, Chihiro Azai, Han Bao, Charles Dismukes, Benjamin Endelman, Govindjee, Christopher Howe, Iskander Ibrahim, Usha Lingappa, Pini Marco, Pattarasiri Rangsrikitphoti, Shai Saroussi, Vivek Tiwari, Rebekka Wachter, Setsuko Wakao, and staff at the Grand Summit Resort Hotel. We thank Ineke Ravesloot and Jacco Flipssen (of Springer) for providing us with the books, given as awards after this conference.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This manuscript was edited by William W. Adams III and accepted for publication in Photosynthesis Research by Barbara Demmig-Adams with the comment, “this exciting conference combined vantage points ranging from biophysics and biochemistry of molecules to the performance of organisms in their natural environment, and included specific elements to highlight the work of junior researchers.”
Dedicated to Fabrice Rappaport (1967–2016).
Electronic supplementary material
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gisriel, C., Saroussi, S., Ramundo, S. et al. Gordon Research Conference on photosynthesis: photosynthetic plasticity from the environment to synthetic systems. Photosynth Res 136, 393–405 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-017-0472-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-017-0472-x