Hi,
I was wondering if any one in this newsgroup had seen the July 19th issue
of Science, Oxygenic Photoautotrophic Growth Without
Photosystem I by J. W. Lee, C. V. Tevault, T. G. Owens, E. Greenbaum. These
researchers claim to have found a mutant of Chlamydomonas that lacks
photosystem I yet grows photoautotrophically with O2 evolution. I've been
looking for comments on this pretty impressive claim, but all I've found
are press releases. I figured someone here would have posted a comment
about this.
I'm writing a blurb which I will post on the web (I'm working for a
company that publishes biology texts and we've got a website, just like
Schick and Coke and everyone else) soon. In case anyone wants to take a
look, take a look below for a summary and some pertinent URLs.
Keli Sato
novice webmaestro of the Wadsworth Publishing Company
and career-switching bio major from Stanford
Stop the presses--Photosystem I not necessary!
Every biology student learns that the light-dependent reactions of
photosynthesis requires photosystem I and II, or at very least photosystem
I. Now researchers from Cornell and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory
claim they have found a mutant algae without photosystem I. These
findings, published in Science on July 19
(http://www.sciencemag.org/science/scripts/display/short/273/5273/
364.html ) may throw some light on the evolution of photosynthesis and,
according to ORNL, could allow scientists to engineer crops with greater
productivity. Read the Cornell
(http://www.news.cornell.edu/science/July96/photosy.bpf.html) and
ORNL press release
(http://www.ornl.gov/ORNL/Energy_Eff/photosynthesis.html) for more
information.
