Re: My Proposal Concerning Light Interaction with Chloroplasts
June 23rd, 2005 | No Comments »Hopefully without distracting from my thoughts about vision and the eye, I some time ago proposed that photosensitive chloroplast organelles of green plants (and, more generally, all photosensitive plants and algae) evolved to use the same type of physics-based nanostructural effect that I have identified as fundamental to light interaction with the retina of the eye. Specifically, the light absorption spectrum for the spinach chloroplast consists of two distinct and widely separated peaks near both ends of the visible band. The nanostructure of this organelle consists of two very distinct nanoseparations termed the granal and stromal regions. I have proposed using this hypothesis that the long wavelength peak must be associated with light interaction with stromal nanoseparations and that he well defined and widely separated short wavelength peak with granal separations. This hypothesis should be experimentally testable using, for example, current scanning confocal microscope technology. Even if discrete granal and stromal regions were not singularly identifiable one should be able to see repeated regularities in photo response. Might some group involved in photosynthesis research undertake such a measurement?
Following the same logic, I believe that a broader study might be undertaken to correlate the measured photo response of the variety of plant and algae with their nanostructures.
