New publication about PSII assembly
Photosystem II (PSII) produces oxygen from water using energy from the sun. In plants, the functional PSII supercomplex consists of over 500 parts. Among them are both light energy-harvesting and highly reactive components, a dangerous mixture. Therefore, it is important that the assembly of PSII takes place in a specific order. Coordinating proteins, so-called assembly factors, play a crucial role in this process. Until now, such factors were known to exist in all photosynthetic organisms from cyanobacteria to plants. The present work describes the characterization of a new assembly factor, which exists only in photosynthetic eukaryotes and which is important for photosynthesis and thus growth of plants.