Far-Red Light Photoacclimation Rewires Antenna-Photosystem Organization in Cyanobacterial Cells
- 1University of Basel
Abstract
Thylakoid membrane remodeling regulates photosynthetic activity in response to changing light, but it is unknown whether such membrane-scale control exists in cyanobacteria, which lack the spatially segregated membrane domains of green algae and plants. Using cryo-electron tomography guided by single-cell hyperspectral correlative imaging, we link spectral acclimation state to thylakoid architecture in far-red light adapting cyanobacteria. We determine the native structures of phycobilisome-photosystem II supercomplexes at subnanometer resolution and show that light-dependent molecular changes propagate across scales to restructure the photosynthetic machinery throughout the thylakoids. We further reveal persistent membrane heterogeneity after prolonged far-red light acclimation and identify a low abundance phycobilisome-photosystem I supercomplex in far-red light conditions. Together, our results frame cyanobacterial thylakoids as plastic membranes that remodel antenna-photosystem structure and organization to regulate photosynthesis.
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BibTeX
@misc{dorst2026farred,
title = {{Far-Red Light Photoacclimation Rewires Antenna-Photosystem Organization in Cyanobacterial Cells}},
author = {S. van Dorst and V. M. Selinger and D. J. Nuernberg and W. Wietrzynski and B. D. Engel},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.64898/2026.10.21.760696},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.21.760696v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Far-Red Light Photoacclimation Rewires Antenna-Photosystem Organization in Cyanobacterial Cells
AU - S. van Dorst
AU - V. M. Selinger
AU - D. J. Nuernberg
AU - W. Wietrzynski
AU - B. D. Engel
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/21
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.10.21.760696
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.21.760696v1
AB - Thylakoid membrane remodeling regulates photosynthetic activity in response to changing light, but it is unknown whether such membrane-scale control exists in cyanobacteria, which lack the spatially segregated membrane domains of green algae and plants. Using cryo-electron tomography guided by single-cell hyperspectral correlative imaging, we link spectral acclimation state to thylakoid architecture in far-red light adapting cyanobacteria. We determine the native structures of phycobilisome-photosystem II supercomplexes at subnanometer resolution and show that light-dependent molecular changes propagate across scales to restructure the photosynthetic machinery throughout the thylakoids. We further reveal persistent membrane heterogeneity after prolonged far-red light acclimation and identify a low abundance phycobilisome-photosystem I supercomplex in far-red light conditions. Together, our results frame cyanobacterial thylakoids as plastic membranes that remodel antenna-photosystem structure and organization to regulate photosynthesis.
ER -