Sometimes, red light means grow

Photosynthesis Some cyanobacteria are able to use the far-red end of the light spectrum by synthesizing chlorophyll f pigments. Introducing the protein responsible for chlorophyll f synthesis into crop plants could potentially expand the range of wavelengths that such plants use during photosynthesis and thereby increase their growth efficiency. Ho et al. identified chlorophyll f synthase (ChlF) in two cyanobacteria that are acclimatized to grow using far-red light. Introducing the ChlF-encoding gene into a model cyanobacterium allowed the organism to synthesize chlorophyll f. Similarities between ChlF and a core protein of photosystem II suggest that they have a close evolutionary relationship, and ChlF may even represent a more primitive photochemical reaction center. Science , this issue p. [886][1] [1]: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/353/6302/886.full