A Mysterious Desert Bacterium Has Evolved Its Own, Unique Ability to Photosynthesize

Our world was changed by photosynthesis. Plants eat sunlight and breathe in oxygen to transform the atmosphere into the one we now breathe.

Researchers have caught a species ofbacteria with technology that was stolen. Their light-eating device is unlike anything we have ever seen.

The architecture of the complex is elegant. It has good structural stability, but also great light harvesting efficiency.

While we know of a lot of photosyntheticbacteria, what is happening in the Gobi desert dwelling is unique.

Sometime during the history of the bacterium, it stole a whole suite of genes from a different proteobacterium.

This shows off the power of the horizontal gene transfer skills of the bacterium, which allows a different type of organisms to get sunlight-eating powers.

This new-to-science, highly stable, sunlight-capturing complex of molecules has a central reaction center, an inner sunlight-capturing ring, and a new type of outer ring.

The components make it larger than previously described.

The phototrophica's photosynthetic complex is called the Gemmatimonas phototrophica. Croll is from the University of Cambridge.

The inner ring is absorbed by the outer rings at a rate of 8.6 percent. The chromophores, like the green chlorophyll in plants, are found at the reaction center.

This is where the sun shines. The captured sunlight causes the chromophores to transfer their electrons along a path that leads to a series of reactions using carbon dioxide to produce sugars.

The bits of light become some of the bonding energy that bind the sugar molecule together.

The reaction center of G. phototrophica is similar to those found in proteobacteria and has the same chromophores. It is a different reaction center with a unique arrangement of stabilizing molecules.

The researchers say that this structure would take more energy to build than other more familiar types, but that it could be offset by its stability and robustness.

The structural and functional study shows that G. phototrophica has evolved its own compact, robust, and highly effective architecture for harvesting and trapping solar energy.

One day, we may be able to steal G. phototrophica's ancient photosynthesis secrets to build a future of solar-powered synthetic biology.

Science Advances published this research.