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A team of Michigan State researchers have identified a new protein that could give a big boost to photosynthesis and help produce large volumes of biofuels.

It involves chloropasts, the workhorses in plants. That’s where sunlight, carbon dioxide and water all get converted into sugars.

The newly discovered protein, trigalactosyldiacylglycerol 4, or TGD4, is considered a significant finding because the protein could unlock a way to tailor-design plants to generate biofuels.

The researchers have solved the mystery of how TGD4 impacts the rate of photosynthesis. The experimental work was published in the August 2008 issue of the journal the Plant Cell.

The work was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and done through a partnership of MSU and University of Wisconsin. –Lee Bruno