ArticleeLife2020
Photosynthesis without β-carotene.
Article in eLife, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 51 citations in OpenAlex.
- Metagenomic analysis of bacterial diversity, antibiotic resistance, and functional profiles in the ice core samples from two glaciers of Sikkim Himalaya.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- The Effect of Sethoxydim Herbicide on the Physiological Parameters, Photosynthetic Enzymes and Antioxidant System in Foxtail Millet.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Genome-Wide Identification of the Potato GGPS Gene Family and Analysis of Its Response to Abiotic Stress.Genes · 2025Article
- Multi-Omics Analysis Provides Insights into a Mosaic-Leaf Phenotype of Astaxanthin-Producing Tobacco.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Pantoea trifolii sp. nov., a novel bacterium isolated from Trifolium rubens root nodules.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Ketocarotenoid production in tomato triggers metabolic reprogramming and cellular adaptation: The quest for homeostasis.Plant biotechnology journal · 2024Article
- The role of the pigment-protein complex LHCBM1 in nonphotochemical quenching in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.Plant physiology · 2024Article
- Nutritional Content and Microbial Load of Fresh Liang,Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Article
- An unexpected hydratase synthesizes the green light-absorbing pigment fucoxanthin.The Plant cell · 2023Article
- Temperature-induced zeaxanthin overproduction in Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942.Photochemical & photobiological sciences : Official journal of the European Photochemistry Association and the European Society for Photobiology · 2023Article
- UV Radiation Induces Specific Changes in the Carotenoid Profile ofBiomolecules · 2022Article
- Metabolite Profiling of Paraquat TolerantAntioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Glutamic Acid and Poly-γ-glutamic Acid Enhanced the Heat Resistance of Chinese Cabbage (International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
- Engineering astaxanthin accumulation reduces photoinhibition and increases biomass productivity under high light in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.Biotechnology for biofuels and bioproducts · 2022Article
- Plant carotenoids: recent advances and future perspectives.Molecular horticulture · 2022Review
- Riboswitch-mediated inducible expression of an astaxanthin biosynthetic operon in plastids.Plant physiology · 2022Article
- The Loroxanthin Cycle: A New Type of Xanthophyll Cycle in Green Algae (Chlorophyta).Frontiers in plant science · 2022Article
- Light quality, oxygenic photosynthesis and more.Photosynthetica · 2022Review
- Uncovering the interactions driving carotenoid binding in light-harvesting complexes.Chemical science · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Carotenoids are essential in oxygenic photosynthesis: they stabilize the pigment-protein complexes, are active in harvesting sunlight and in photoprotection. In plants, they are present as carotenes and their oxygenated derivatives, xanthophylls. While mutant plants lacking xanthophylls are capable of photoautotrophic growth, no plants without carotenes in their photosystems have been reported so far, which has led to the common opinion that carotenes are essential for photosynthesis. Here, we report the first plant that grows photoautotrophically in the absence of carotenes: a tobacco plant containing only the xanthophyll astaxanthin. Surprisingly, both photosystems are fully functional despite their carotenoid-binding sites being occupied by astaxanthin instead of β-carotene or remaining empty (i.e. are not occupied by carotenoids). These plants display non-photochemical quenching, despite the absence of both zeaxanthin and lutein and show that tobacco can regulate the ratio between the two photosystems in a very large dynamic range to optimize electron transport.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.