The Institute of Applied Sciences and Intelligent Systems, with Dr. Emanuela Esposito’s research team, collaborated with the University of Verona and the Anton Dohrn Zoological Station of Naples on a study that sheds light on the evolutionary mechanisms enabling *Posidonia oceanica* to thrive at depths of up to 50 meters, under conditions of extremely low light.
The study, published today in *Nature Communications*, relied in particular on the EYE LAB cryo-electron microscopy facility. This advanced CNR ISASI research infrastructure is the CNR’s first facility dedicated to Cryo-EM and one of the few of its kind in Southern Italy; it enabled the reconstruction of the three-dimensional structure of *Posidonia oceanica*’s photosystem I at atomic resolution, thereby identifying the evolutionary adaptation that allows this marine plant to optimize its photosynthetic apparatus and make the most of the limited light available on the seabed.