From the Department of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130
J Biol Chem. 2018 Apr 6;293(14):5016-5017. doi: 10.1074/jbc.TM118.002424. Epub 2018 Feb 14.
Plants and their green cousins cyanobacteria and algae use sunlight to drive the chemistry that lets them grow, survive, and perform an amazing range of biochemical reactions. The ability of these organisms to use a freely available energy source makes them attractive as sustainable and renewable platforms for more than just food production. They are also a source of metabolic tools for engineering microbes for "green" chemistry. This Thematic Minireview Series discusses how green organisms capture light and protect their photosynthetic machinery from too much light; new structural snapshots of the clock complex that orchestrates signaling during the light/dark cycle; challenges for improving stress responses in crops; harnessing cyanobacteria as biofactories; and efforts to engineer microbes for "green" biopolymer production.
植物及其绿色近亲蓝藻和藻类利用阳光来驱动化学过程，使它们能够生长、存活并进行各种生化反应。这些生物能够利用自由可用的能源，使它们成为不仅仅是食品生产的可持续和可再生平台的有吸引力的选择。它们也是用于“绿色”化学工程微生物的代谢工具的来源。本主题迷你综述系列讨论了绿色生物如何捕获光并保护其光合作用机器免受过多光的影响；协调光/暗循环期间信号转导的时钟复合物的新结构快照；改善作物应激反应的挑战；利用蓝藻作为生物工厂；以及努力为“绿色”生物聚合物生产工程微生物。
