Joint studies on the nuclear-encoded photosystem genes.

这项研究计划促进日本(上述五名科学家)、美国(Anastasios Melis教授，加州大学伯克利分校)和德国(Ralf Oelmueller教授，Friedrich-Schiller University，Jena)关于高等植物和藻类光系统复合体生物发生的国际联合研究。在获得资助的期间，共有21名科学家相互参观并在实验室停留了148天，进行了合作研究。这些研究的结果是在期刊和书籍上发表了26篇论文，在国际会议上发表了17篇论文，在国内会议上发表了29篇论文，以及两项专利申请。主要的科学发现如下：1、首次发现植物光系统基因具有独特的启动子结构和转录启动机制；2、我们发现光系统复合体的生物发生受到光合作用电子流的正反馈调节；3、光系统基因的氧化还原调节不仅与mRNA的丰度有关，还与多核糖体的负载有关；4、我们开发了一套交替激发PSI和PSII的特殊LED光源；5、我们揭示了叶绿素b的丰度对捕光天线的生物发生并不那么重要；6、叶绿素氧合酶(CAO)在调节触角大小以适应环境光强方面起着重要作用；7、基于对CAO基因的系统发育分析，我们提出了一个全新的假说来解释叶绿体的起源和进化。

This research project was planned for promoting the international joint studies by the plant physiologists of Japan (five scientists mentioned above), US (Prof. Anastasios Melis, University of California, Berkeley), and Germany (Prof.Ralf Oelmueller, Friedrich-Schiller Universitaet, Jena) on the biogenesis of photosystem complexes in higher plants and algae. During the period supported by the grant, 21 scientists in total have visited the laboratories one another and stayed there for the total days of 148, and performed the cooperative studies. The outcomes of these research are 26 papers published in the journals and books, 17 presentations in the international meetings, and 29 presentations at domestic meetings, and two patent applications. The major scientific findings are as follows ;1, We found that plant photosystem genes have unique promoter architecture and transcription initiation mechanisms for the first time ;2, We showed that the biogenesis of photosystem complexes is subjected to positive feedback regulation by photosynthetic electron flow ;3, The redox regulation of photosystem genes operates not only on mRNA abundance but also on poly-ribosome loading ;4, We developed a set of special LED light sources that excite PSI and PSII alternatively ;5, We revealed that the abundance of chlorophyll b is not so important for the biogenesis of light-harvesting antennas ;6, CAO (chlorophyll-oxygenase) plays important roles in adjusting the antennae size to environmental light strength ;7, We proposed a quite new hypothesis to explain the origin and evolution of chloroplats, based on the phylogenetic analyzes of CAO genes.