Is it possible to simulate the complex process of photosynthesis in plants? – LOCAL.PT

COIMBRA – After five years of complex studies and more than 30 million hours of calculation in European supercomputers, an international team of scientists, with the participation of researchers from the Department of Physics, University of Coimbra (UC), managed to simulate the process capturing light of the gigantic structure of molecules – the “antenna” known as “Light-Harvesting Complex II.” – involved in the first step of photosynthesis in plants

It was the first time they studied all the great structure (about 18,000 atoms) of what we call “the starter photosynthesis machine”, using only the quantum mechanics.

The results of the study, already published online, and will be the headline of an upcoming issue of Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, it is important to “understand how nature has solved the problem of capturing and using energy sun. And he did it in an extraordinarily efficient … much better than current photovoltaic panels “, advances the coordinator of the Portuguese team, Fernando Nogueira.

In this study, the researchers identified through a calculation without precedents, who does what in this giant and intricate kind of chlorophyll network, “just a chlorophyll molecule has the lead role in photosystem structure. All other function as “antennas” energy harvesting, transferring it immediately to the central molecule which is where we give the following process steps “, reports the specialist in Computational Physics from UC.

The way it handles the transfer of energy to the reaction center is still an enigma for scientists and therefore “understand how these antennas transmit power to the central molecule of photosystem is the next step in the investigation. Collect an enormous amount of information that is necessary to disentangle, “says Fernando Nogueira.