Chromist algae include diverse photosynthetic organisms of great ecological and social importance. Despite vigorous research efforts, a clear understanding of how various chromists acquired photosynthetic organelles has been complicated by conflicting phylogenetic results, along with an undetermined number and pattern of endosymbioses, and the horizontal movement of genes that accompany them. W...

Optical control of the heart muscle is a promising strategy for cardiology because it is more specific than traditional electrical stimulation, and allows a higher temporal resolution than pharmacological interventions. Anion channelrhodopsins (ACRs) from cryptophyte algae expressed in cultured neonatal rat ventricular cardiomyocytes produced inhibitory currents at less than one-thousandth of t...

The superfamily of light-harvesting complex (LHC) proteins is comprised of proteins with diverse functions in light-harvesting and photoprotection. LHC proteins bind chlorophyll (Chl) and carotenoids and include a family of LHCs that bind Chl a and c. Dinophytes (dinoflagellates) are predominantly Chl c binding algal taxa, bind peridinin or fucoxanthin as the primary carotenoid, and can possess...

Photosynthetic antenna complexes are responsible for absorbing energy from sunlight and transmitting it to remote locations where it can be stored. Recent experiments have found that this process involves long-lived quantum coherence between pigment molecules, called chromophores, which make up these complexes Expected to decay within 100 fs at room temperature, these coherences were instead fo...