Let there be green!

green landscape

It is responsible for the green color of plants: scientists just revealed the essential mechanisms for the emergence of photosynthesis at the level of plant cells.

By integrating a diverse set of techniques, this study, praised by several external experts, has led to a model for the development of an organelle. This is the most comprehensive study on the emergence of photosynthesis to date, and opens up new avenues of research to optimize this process in plants of agronomic interest. This result also bodes well for more targeted methods of weed control, based on herbicides that would prevent greening and thus the survival of undesirable weeds, with little effect on the surrounding fauna.

The findings are the result of a collaborative effort of researchers working at the universities of Neuchâtel (UniNE), Geneva (UNIGE), and ETH Zurich - all members of the Swiss Plant Science Web - together with colleagues from Grenoble (F).

Reference publication
Rosa Pipitone, Simona Eicke, Barbara Pfister, Gaetan Glauser, Denis Falconet, Clarisse Uwizeye, Thibaut Pralon, Samuel C Zeeman, Felix Kessler, Emilie Demarsy.
A multifaceted analysis reveals two distinct phases of chloroplast biogenesis during de-etiolation in Arabidopsis
eLife in press, 2020   doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.30.274043

Source
Uni Neuchâtel, communiqué de presse