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Electron flow from water to NADP+ with students acting as molecules in the chain: a Z-scheme drama in a classroom

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Notes

  1. Cast of Characters: Plant/Narrator: Shirshanya Roy (SR); the Sun: (Professor) B.C. Tirpathy (BCT); Water: Hydrogen 1—Shwet Shilpi (SS); Hydrogen 2- Neelam Bhadana (NB); Oxygen- Shafaque Zahra (SZ); Tyrosine: Payal Paul (PP); P680: Mansi Gautam (MG); Pheophytin: Priya Jaiswal (PJ); Plastoquinone QA: Bidisha Das (BD); Plastoquinone: QB/Semiquinone: Q −B /Plastoquinol (plastodihydroquinol): QBH2, or PQH2: Chirchomri Khayi (CK) and Bapi Thokchom (BT); Bicarbonate ion: (Professor) Govindjee (GOV); Rieske iron-sulfur cluster of Cytochrome (Cyt) b6/f complex—Rashmi Baraik (RB); Cyt f/Cyt b6 complex itself—Pratibha Singh (PS); Plastocyanin (PC): Misha Bansal (MB); P700: Annu Kala (AK); A0: Hima Mahour (HM); Phylloquinone (A1): Himanshi Yaduvanshi (HY); Fx: Sayed Hadi (SH); FA/FB: Avipsa Bose (AB); Ferredoxin (Fd): Sagarika Jaiswal (SJ); Ferredoxin-NADP oxidoreductase (FNR): Velentina Brahma (VB); NADP+: Mansi Srivastava (MS); Protons: Ritu Singh (RS), and Kamal Ruhil (KR); Hydrogenase: Jyotsna (JY); Hydrogen: Ritu Singh (RS), and Kamal Ruhil (KR); and the herbicide DCMU: Shefali Bajpai (SB).

  2. Components (in order of appearance; see Footnote 1 for names of the actors): P680; the Sun; pheophytin; QA; QB and then Q -B ; QBH2 (=PQH2); bicarbonate; Rieske Iron Sulfur cluster; Cytb6f; plastocyanin; P700; A0; A1; Fx; FA/FB; ferredoxin; FNR; NADP+; proton 1 and hydrogen; proton 2 and hydrogen; DCMU; the narrator, representing the plant, was Shirshanya Roy.

  3. We have given the initials of the students next to molecules they had become in this Z-scheme drama (full names are given in Footnote 1).

References

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Acknowledgments

We are highly obliged to GIAN (Global Initiative of Academic Networks) of Government of India for supporting the visit of Govindjee (Professor Emeritus, University of Illinois, Urbana–Champaign) to teach us a course on Photosynthesis during February, 2016, together with Prof. B.C. Tripathy of JNU. A course description is available at http://www.life.illinois.edu/govindjee/teachingof.html. We thank the entire class of M.Sc. for their participation in this educational drama done in a classroom. We thank Govindjee for his ingenious idea of representation of the Z-scheme phenomenon, and for correcting the conceptual errors, as well as for playing the role of bicarbonate, but most importantly for acting as Robert Emerson during the drama. We are grateful to Prof. B.C. Tripathy for helping us out with the drama, making us rehearse over and over again, and for playing the part of Sun so well. We are extremely obliged to Prof. Thomas D. Sharkey, editor of our manuscript, for making several crucial suggestions that have improved this REPORT. Three of us (Sagarika Jaiswal, Misha Bansal, and Shirshanya Roy) wrote the text of the drama; and two of us (Adyasha Bharati, and Barnali Padhi) wrote the text of the narrative, and provided additional help and ideas, and stayed back late during rehearsals. We are especially thankful to Ritu Singh and Shefali Bajpai for agreeing to act as hydrogen and DCMU, respectively; we are also pleased that Kamal Ruhil accepted, at the last minute, to act as a proton! Our heartfelt thanks go to Anand Gupta and Ehteshamul Haq for patiently videotaping the entire event, and to Adyasha Bharati who took all the photographs of the Z-scheme drama. Lastly, we thank Rajni Govindjee for celebrating our success with a luncheon for the entire MSc class.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 110067, India

    Sagarika Jaiswal, Misha Bansal, Shirshanya Roy, Adyasha Bharati & Barnali Padhi

Authors
  1. Sagarika Jaiswal
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  2. Misha Bansal
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  3. Shirshanya Roy
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  4. Adyasha Bharati
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  5. Barnali Padhi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Barnali Padhi.

Additional information

This News Report was read and edited by Thomas D. Sharkey, of the Editorial Board of Photosynthesis Research. It was accepted with the following comment: “This report of a play staged by students under the direction of Govindjee (Urbana, Illinois, USA) and B C. Tripathy (New Delhi, India) shows how a long interest of Govindjee (acting out photosynthesis) can be carried out in a modern lecture hall. It incorporates active learning, group exercise, and would appeal to students with varied learning styles. I hope it stimulates others to undertake what should be an enlightening and fun experience for students”.

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Jaiswal, S., Bansal, M., Roy, S. et al. Electron flow from water to NADP+ with students acting as molecules in the chain: a Z-scheme drama in a classroom. Photosynth Res 131, 351–359 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-016-0317-z

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