Dr Wallace Lim and his co-authors have made major discoveries in chloroplast bioenergetics.
Photosynthesis is the most important energy-harvesting process on our planet, and Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) plays a crucial role here – it provides the energy needed for carbon fixation. A team of researchers from Hong Kong, Germany, Sweden, and the US, used a fluorescent protein sensor in a model plant (Arabidopsis thaliana) to detect ATP levels in chloroplasts and the cytosol in real-time. Their observations indicate that although the chloroplast is the key energy harvester and producer in a plant cell, its demand for ATP is also extremely high. Their findings were published recently in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).