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  • Turning sunlight into oxygen

Turning sunlight into oxygen

Monday, April 15, 2019

An underwater photograph captures rays of sunlight penetrating to the ocean floor.
Rays of sunlight penetrate to the ocean floor. Photo from ChurchMotionGraphics

A study led by Professor David Kehoe of IU Biology and Frédéric Partensky of Sorbonne University/CNRS has been published in PNAS. Their work explains for the first time a key part of a process that allows Synechococcus, a widespread ocean bacterium, to efficiently convert sunlight into oxygen.

David Kehoe.
David Kehoe. Photo by Eric Rudd, Indiana University

“This is an extremely important organism, and much remains to be learned about it,” Kehoe said. “Because carbon and oxygen cycles are so important for our planet’s heath, everything we can do to understand the inputs and outlets to those cycles is valuable information. This knowledge can help us make more informed models for predicting climate change and global warming.”

In February, Indiana University signed formal partnerships to engage in research collaboration and student exchange with Sorbonne University, one of France’s top-ranked research universities. The Kehoe and Partensky labs have been working jointly since 2007. Their collaboration exemplifies the newly formed relationship between the universities.

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