Improving light harvesting

The family of light-harvesting complexes (LHCs) includes integral membrane proteins, which combine with the core complexes of both photosystems and form a flexible peripheral antenna system in order to enhance the absorption of light quanta and provide protection against excess light stress. Following their first appearance, LHCs underwent evolutionary diversification into a large protein family, and this differentiation was a crucial event in the adaptation of photosynthetic organisms to changing light environments and the colonisation of different ecological niches. Indeed, plants and algae undergo highly variable irradiance and spectral quality in space and time, which probably shaped the evolution of a plethora of processes to counteract these fluctuations and finely adjust light-use efficiency. Many of these mechanisms are hosted by LHCs. Consistently, multiple findings have suggested that the crucial point in enhancing the efficiency of photosynthesis is the optimisation of the light-harvesting process. In this chapter, developing and promising approaches will be presented for a prospective redesign of antenna systems.