Hyderabad: Prof. S. Rajagopal of the University of Hyderabad has been elected Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA), New Delhi, for his significant contributions to the field of photosynthesis, with a focus on bioenergetics and chloroplast acclimation.
Prof. Rajagopal’s research lab at the University of Hyderabad’s Department of Plant Sciences, School of Life Sciences, investigated the structural and organisational dynamics of photosystems (PS) and light-harvesting complexes (LHC) in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and Arabidopsis thaliana.
He discovered that under fluctuating light, the LHCB2 subunit phosphorylates, causing LHCII to dissociate from PS II and eventually migrate to PSI, a phenomenon known as state transitions. State transitions were also an important protective strategy under temperature and salt stresses, said a press release.
Prof. Rajagopal investigated the effects of high light and iron deficiency on the organisation of the photosynthetic apparatus and proposed a structural model of PSI, emphasising that aggregation of LHCII complexes assisted C. reinhardtii in adapting to abiotic stress via non-photochemical quenching mediated by LHC stress-related protein. His findings on the physiological and molecular basis of abiotic stress adaptation could pave the way for developing photosynthesis sustenance strategies under limiting conditions..
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