Regulation of Algae Photosynthesis by Light and Metabolic signals – MetaboLIGHT

Light has two roles for photosynthetic organisms: sensed by photoreceptors it pro-vides spatiotemporal information; absorbed by chloroplast pigments it supplies energy for photosynthesis, crucial for life on Earth. To thrive, plants and algae evolved the ability to integrate these two functions, through complex mechanisms currently not well understood. A main goal is to prevent lethal photodamage caused by excess light and they do so mainly via the photoprotection mechanism qE (energy quenching). Our data show that in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii there is a complex regulatory interconnection between qE, the blue light photoreceptor PHOTOTROPIN, photosynthesis and metabolic CO2 which we aim to elucidate within MetaboLIGHT at the molecular level, using biochemical, genetic, chemical genetic, and genome-wide transcriptomic approaches. MetaboLIGHT will advance our fundamental knowledge on the regulation of photosynthesis under fluctuating environmental conditions.