Biosciences Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado, USA
J Bacteriol. 2019 Apr 24;201(10). doi: 10.1128/JB.00082-19. Print 2019 May 15.
Photosynthesis, the process of converting solar energy into stored chemical bonds, represents the primary mechanism by which biological organisms utilize photons. Light can also be used to activate a number of photosensory compounds and proteins designed to carry out tasks, such as DNA repair, gene regulation, and synchronization with the diurnal cycle. Given that sunlight is incident upon many environments, it is not farfetched to think that life may have evolved other as-yet-undetected mechanisms to profit from solar irradiation. In this issue, Maresca and coworkers detail their observations of light-enhanced growth of several nonphotosynthetic actinobacteria, as well as describe the potential photosensitizer responsible for this phenotype and discuss the regulatory networks involved (J. A. Maresca, J. L. Keffer, P. P. Hempel, S. W. Polson, et al., J Bacteriol 201:e00740-18, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1128/JB.00740-18). This study opens the door to many intriguing questions about the use of light as information in nonphotosynthetic biological systems.
光合作用是将太阳能转化为储存化学键的过程，是生物有机体利用光子的主要机制。光也可用于激活许多旨在执行任务的感光化合物和蛋白质，例如 DNA 修复、基因调控以及与昼夜节律同步。鉴于阳光照射到许多环境中，不难想象生命可能已经进化出其他尚未被发现的机制，以从太阳辐射中获益。在本期中，Maresca 及其同事详细描述了他们对几种非光合放线菌的光增强生长的观察结果，描述了负责这种表型的潜在光敏剂，并讨论了所涉及的调控网络（J. A. Maresca、J. L. Keffer、P. P. Hempel、S. W. Polson 等人，J Bacteriol 201:e00740-18, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1128/JB.00740-18）。这项研究为非光合生物系统中光作为信息的用途提出了许多有趣的问题。
