Photoelectric conversion of near infrared light in purple photosynthetic bacteria

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K06563
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 43030:Functional biochemistry-related
• Research Institution: Kobe University
• Principal Investigator: Kimura Yukihiro 神戸大学, 農学研究科, 准教授 (20321755)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 光合成 / 近赤外光 / 光電変換 / 紅色細菌 / uphillエネルギー移動 / カルシウム

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Purple photosynthetic bacteria carry out photosynthesis by converting near-infrared light, which is unused by plants and cyanobacteria, into useful energy, but the detailed mechanism of this process is remained to be resolved. In the present study, we investigated the light-harvesting 1 reaction center pigment-protein complex (the heart of the purple bacterial photosynthetic reaction) from various purple bacteria using physicochemical approaches to understand (1) why they can utilize low-energy near-infrared light and (2) how they can efficiently convert the energy and obtained important knowledge to understand one part of the mechanism.

Free Research Field

生物物理

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

持続可能な社会の構築においてエネルギー資源の問題は最も重要な問題の一つである。近赤外光は地上に降り注ぐ太陽光の約4割を占めるが、そのエネルギーの低さ故に未利用のエネルギー資源となっている。原始の光合成生物である紅色光合成細菌は、この低エネルギーの近赤外光を有用なエネルギーに変換する能力を備えており、そのメカニズムの解明は近赤外応答型人工光合成システム基盤創出の可能性を秘めたおり、エネルギー資源の問題解決に繋がる重要な課題である。