Jennifer Mach (she/they)
Annals of Botany🌿 Join us to learn about the newly published review ‘What are grana in chloroplasts of vascular plants good for?’ in @AnnBot by Malgorzata Krysiak and co-authors. 🧵(1/8)
#PlantScience #Photosynthesis #Chloroplasts #PlantPhysiology #AoBpapers
This new review explores how the stacked thylakoid membranes inside plant chloroplasts shape photosynthesis from light capture to repair. (2/8)
Grana are the ‘green stacks’ of thylakoid membranes in plant chloroplasts, an evolutionary innovation that optimizes how plants harvest light and manage energy. (3/8)
☀️🌥️The review revisits how grana form, what physical and molecular forces hold them together, and how their architecture changes under different light conditions.(4/8)
It shows how grana stacking influences:
🔹 light harvesting efficiency
🔹 electron transport between photosystems
🔹 repair of photosystem II
🔹 plant photoprotection mechanisms (5/8)
🔹 light harvesting efficiency
🔹 electron transport between photosystems
🔹 repair of photosystem II
🔹 plant photoprotection mechanisms (5/8)
Grana aren’t static. Their structure shifts dynamically with light intensity, balancing photosynthetic performance and protection against photodamage. (6/8)
The authors highlight the crucial role of protein crowding, membrane curvature proteins (like CURT1), and phosphorylation in controlling grana shape and function. (7/8)