Research teams at the High Flux Isotope Reactor of the BioSans instrument have devised a new LED lighting tool to study how cyanobacteria react to light. This device was created by Brad O’ Dell who is an intern from the Cambridge University.
The research is being sponsored by theUS- based Energy Frontier Research Centres and Photosynthesis Antenna Research Centre.
Researchers at the Bio-SANS are using this new LED lighting tool to study the light response of the membrane stacks in blue-green algae found in almost every environment.
The process, through which sunlight is converted into energy by plants is called photosynthesis. Plants, bacteria and algae have light-harvesting antenna systems called chlorosomes that collect the maximum amount of light and move them to the reaction centres. These reaction centres are the places where transfer of electrons for the purpose of photochemistry occurs. For the purpose of the research, bacteria were loaded into curved containers and an LED was fixed on top of the containers. Then the array with the bacteria was passed through a neutron beam, which recorded the response of the bacteria to shifts in light from the LED. Cyanobacteria, which are an algae and blue-green in colour were used for this research.
Researchers studied the relationship between light colour and intensity and the reaction of the bacteria. The findings can particularly be useful for the development of efficient solar panels. Researchers have also studied the ability of chlorosomes to absorb solar energy under low or high light and transform it into chemical energy. This unique feature of chlorosomes enables its usage for thedevelopment of biohybrid solar cell devices.