2. Academic Validation
  3. Weak acids produced during anaerobic respiration suppress both photosynthesis and aerobic respiration

Weak acids produced during anaerobic respiration suppress both photosynthesis and aerobic respiration

  • Nat Commun. 2023 Jul 14;14(1):4207. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-39898-0.
Xiaojie Pang 1 2,  Wojciech J Nawrocki 3 4,  Pierre Cardol 5,  Mengyuan Zheng 1 2,  Jingjing Jiang 1,  Yuan Fang 1 2,  Wenqiang Yang 1 2,  Roberta Croce 3,  Lijin Tian 6 7
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Key Laboratory of Photobiology, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100093, Beijing, China.
  • 2 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100049, Beijing, China.
  • 3 Department of Physics and Astronomy and LaserLab Amsterdam Faculty of Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
  • 4 Laboratoire de Biologie du Chloroplaste et Perception de la Lumière chez les Microalgues, UMR7141, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Sorbonne Université, Institut de Biologie Physico-Chimique, 13 Rue Pierre et Marie Curie, 75005, Paris, France.
  • 5 Génétique et Physiologie des Microalgues, InBioS/Phytosystems, Institut de Botanique, Université de Liège, B22, 4000, Liège, Belgium.
  • 6 Key Laboratory of Photobiology, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100093, Beijing, China. ltian@ibcas.ac.cn.
  • 7 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100049, Beijing, China. ltian@ibcas.ac.cn.
PMID: 37452043 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-39898-0
Abstract

While photosynthesis transforms sunlight energy into sugar, aerobic and anaerobic respiration (fermentation) catabolizes sugars to fuel cellular activities. These processes take place within one cell across several compartments, however it remains largely unexplored how they interact with one another. Here we report that the weak acids produced during fermentation down-regulate both photosynthesis and aerobic respiration. This effect is mechanistically explained with an "ion trapping" model, in which the lipid bilayer selectively traps protons that effectively acidify subcellular compartments with smaller buffer capacities - such as the thylakoid lumen. Physiologically, we propose that under certain conditions, e.g., dim light at dawn, tuning down the photosynthetic light reaction could mitigate the pressure on its electron transport chains, while suppression of respiration could accelerate the net oxygen evolution, thus speeding up the recovery from hypoxia. Since we show that this effect is conserved across photosynthetic phyla, these results indicate that fermentation metabolites exert widespread feedback control over photosynthesis and aerobic respiration. This likely allows algae to better cope with changing environmental conditions.

Figures
Products