Presto Researcher

Yoshitaka Saga
Faculty of Science and Engineering, Kindai University
Professor

Outline

Photosynthesis is a high-efficient conversion system of sunlight energy in nature. The organization of functional pigments in photosynthetic proteins plays important roles in efficient light absorption as well as energy and electron transfer in these proteins. Such organized pigment binding sites are utilized to produce regular arrangements of nano-spaces in photosynthetic proteins by selective removal of some tetrapyrrole pigments. The nano-spaces are functionally linked to residual pigments in these proteins. A new methodology, in which photosynthetic pigments that are crucial in photosynthesis are removed from photosynthetic proteins, is proposed to develop functional nano-spaces in proteins in this project. The prepared nano-spaces will be employed to efficient photoreactions by visible and near-infrared light and molecular recognitions with a high selectivity.