A newly discovered pathway by which cells protect themselves from a toxic byproduct of photosynthesis may hold important implications for bioenergy sources, human and plant disease, and agricultural yields, a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison bacteriologists announced Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“We’ve discovered a pathway that cells use to turn on certain genes and respond to singlet oxygen,” says Timothy Donohue, a professor of bacteriology in the university’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and lead researcher on the paper.