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Plant biology

First molecular evidence for zeaxanthin’s role in energy dissipation

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology volume 27, page 259 (2026)Cite this article

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A 1998 paper by Niyogi, Björkman and Gossman provided the first causal evidence in a plant system for the ability of the carotenoid zeaxanthin to siphon dangerous excess energy away from chlorophyll, which fuelled wide-ranging exploration of this protective process to improve plant stress resilience.

These conversions between zeaxanthin and violaxanthin were closely correlated with changes in non-photochemical fluorescence quenching (NPQ) indicative of photoprotective thermal dissipation of excess excitation, in which zeaxanthin levels correlated positively with NPQ. Whether this correlation was based on causation, with zeaxanthin as a facilitator of thermal dissipation, remained highly disputed until 1998. The proposal that zeaxanthin facilitates thermal dissipation had grown out of work in Olle Björkman’s group at the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Plant Biology. The now-classic Niyogi et al. (1998) paper was the result of an innovative and discipline-transcending follow-up collaboration of molecular biologists Krishna (Kris) Niyogi and Arthur Grossman with eco-physiologist Björkman.

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References

Original article

  • Niyogi, K. K., Grossman, A. R. & Björkman, O. Arabidopsis mutants define a central role for the xanthophyll cycle in the regulation of photosynthetic energy conversion. Plant Cell 10, 1121–1134 (1998)

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Related articles

  • Niyogi, K. K., Björkman, O. & Grossman, A. R. Chlamydomonas xanthophyll cycle mutants identified by video imaging of chlorophyll fluorescence quenching. Plant Cell 9, 1369–1380 (1997)

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  • Demmig, B., Winter, K., Krüger, A. & Czygan, F.-C. Photoinhibition and zeaxanthin formation in intact leaves. A possible role of the xanthophyll cycle in the dissipation of excess light energy. Plant Physiol. 84, 218–224 (1987)

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

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  1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA

    Barbara Demmig-Adams

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  1. Barbara Demmig-Adams
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Correspondence to Barbara Demmig-Adams.

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Demmig-Adams, B. First molecular evidence for zeaxanthin’s role in energy dissipation. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 27, 259 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41580-025-00927-z

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