Research
He has always been interested in primary productivity and in particular in photosynthesis, photoprotection, chloroplast biogenesis, photoperception, bioenergy, biofuels. He was a pioneer in the study of light-harvesting systems for plants, mosses and unicellular algae (Light Harvesting Complexes, LHCs): the supramolecular complexes of pigments and proteins that are primarily responsible for the absorption of photons and determine the efficiency of the photosynthetic process. LHCs are the most abundant membrane proteins in the biosphere and bind 70% of chlorophyll, the pigment that makes the earth a green planet. He is presently the P.I. of the ERC Advance Grant GRINSUN (Green Interface between Sun Energy and the Biosphere).
Academic Career
Assistant Professor, Botanical Institute and Department of Biology, University of Padua, Italy (1983-1991)
Associate Professor of Plant Physiology, University of Urbino, Italy (1992-1993)
Associate Professor of Plant Physiology, University of Verona, Italy (1993-2002)
Professor of “Biochemistry and Molecular Biology”, University of Aix-Marseille, France (2002-2005)
Full Professor of Plant Physiology, University of Verona, Italy (since 2005)
President, Anton Dohrn Experimental Station, Naples, Italy (since 2024)
Visits and assignments to host institutions
In between 1983 and 1990 he carried out research activities in various European laboratories: Department of Physiology, Carlsberg Research Centre, Copenhagen, DK (Prof. Diter von Wettstein); Institut de Biologie Physico-Chimique, Paris, FR (Prof. Pierre Joliot); Department de Biologie Moléculaire, Université de Geneve, CH (Prof. Jean-David Rochaix)
Lecturer of Photobiology at the University of Lausanne, CH (1994-1996)
Visiting Research Professor, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, China (2012)
Visiting Research Professor, Juelich Phenotyping Centre, Germany (2017)
Visiting Research Professor, University of California at Berkeley, CA (2017)
Conferences and seminars
He has given invited talks at more than 120 international congresses and has held more than 200 seminars in universities and research institutes. These include the “Daniel Arnon lecture” at Berkeley University (2015), the “Annual Lecture in Plant Biology” at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing (2012) and the “Diter von Wettstein Memorial Lecture” at Kiel (2018).
Institutional and Academic Appointments
Vice-President of the International Society of Photobiology (2010-2019)
Member of the editorial board of “Molecular Plant” (since 2012)
Director of the Doctoral School in Natural Sciences and Engineering of the University of Verona (2019-2020)
President of the scientific committee of the Anton Dohrn Zoological Station in Naples (since 2012)
He was a member of the scientific committee of CREA – Center for Agronomic Research (2012-2015) and of the Department of Biotechnology of the CNR (in 2015).
Member of the International Affairs Committee, of the Agriculture Committee and of the Environment Committee of The National Academy of Lincei (since 2023).
Awards
Baccarini-Melandri Prize (1996)
von Humboldt-Helmholtz Prize (2009)
Chinese Academy of Sciences Award (2012)
Herlitzka Prize for Physiology (2018)
Selected Publications
Bassi, R., L. Dall’Osto (2021) Dissipation of light energy absorbed in excess: the molecular mechanisms. Annual Review of Plant Biology 72, 47-76.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34143647/
Su, X, D Cao, X Pan, L., Shi, Z. Liu, L. Dall’Osto, R. Bassi, M. Li (2022) Supramolecular assembly of chloroplast NADH dehydrogenase-like complex with photosystem I from Arabidopsis thaliana. Molecular Plant 15 (3), 454-467.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35123031/
Guardini, Z., M. Bressan, R. Caferri R. Bassi and L. Dall’Osto (2020). Identification of a pigment cluster catalyzing fast photoprotective quenching response in CP29. Nature Plants, 6(3):303-313.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32170280/
Girolomoni, L., Cazzaniga, S., Pinnola, A., Ballottari, M. and Bassi, R. (2019) LHCSR3 is a Non-Photochemical Quencher of both photosystems in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci USA, 116(10):4212-4217.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30782831/
Kondo, T., A. Pinnola, John Ogren, R. Bassi and G. Schlau-Cohen (2017) Single-molecule spectroscopy of LHCSR1 protein dynamics identies two distinct states responsible for multitimescale photosynthetic photoprotection. Nature Chemistry 9 (8), 772-778.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28754946/
Dall’Osto, L., S. Cazzaniga, M. Bressan, D. Paleček, K. Židek, K. K. Niyogi, G. R. Fleming, D. Zigmantas and R. Bassi (2017) Dissipative response to excess light is catalyzed in monomeric and trimeric light-harvesting complexes by two independent mechanisms. Nature Plants. 2017 Apr 10;3:17033.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28394312/
Pinnola A, Cazzaniga S, Alboresi A, Nevo R, Levin-Zaidman S, Reich Z, Bassi R. (2015) Light-Harvesting Complex Stress-Related Proteins Catalyze Excess Energy Dissipation in Both Photosystems of Physcomitrella patens. The Plant Cell, (11):3213-27.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26508763/
Schlau-Cohen, G. S. Ishizaki, A. Calhoun, T. R. Ginsberg, N. S., Ballottari, M., Bassi R. & Fleming G. R Elucidation of the timescales and origins of quantum electronic coherence in LHCII (2012). Nature Chemistry 4(5):389-95.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22522259/
Bonente, G., M. Ballottari, T. Truong, T. Morosinotto,T.-K. Ahn, G. Fleming, K. Niyogi and R. Bassi (2011) Analysis of LhcSR3, a protein essential for feed-back de-excitation in the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. PLOS Biology9(1): e1000577.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21267060/
Alboresi, A., Gerotto, C., Giacometti, G. M. Bassi, R.and Morosinotto T. (2010) Heat dissipation in the moss Physcomitrella patens provides Insights on the evolution of protection mechanisms upon land colonization. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 107 (24) 11128-11133.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20505121/
Ahn, T.K., Avenson, T.J., Ballottari, M.,Cheng, Y-C, Niyogi, K.K., Bassi, R., and Fleming, G.R.(2008) Architecture Of A Charge-Transfer State Regulating Photosynthetic Light Harvesting In Plants. Science 320, 794-797.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18467588/
de Bianchi S., Dall’Osto L., Tognon G., Morosinotto T. and Bassi R. (2008) Minor Antenna Proteins CP24 and CP26 control the interactions between Photosytem II subunits and the electron transport rate within grana membranes. The Plant Cell. 20 1012-1028.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18381925/
Dall’Osto L., Cazzaniga S., North, H., Marion-Poll A., and Bassi R. (2007) The aba4 mutant of Arabidopsis thaliana reveals a specific function for neoxanthin in protection against photooxidative stress. The Plant Cell, 19: 1048-1064.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17351115/
Dall’Osto, L., Caffarri, S., Bassi, R. (2005) A mechanism of non-photochemical energy dissipation, independent from PsbS, revealed by a conformational change in the antenna protein CP26. The Plant Cell. 17(4):1217-32.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15749754/
Finazzi, G. Johnson G. N., Dall’Osto L., Joliot, P. Wollman F.-A., Bassi R. (2004) A zeaxanth-inindependent non-photochemical quenching mechanism localized in the Photosystem II core complex. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 101(33):12375-80.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15304641/
Bassi, R., Croce, R., Cugini, D., and Sandonà, D. (1999) Mutation analysis of an higher plant antenna protein provides identification of chromophores bound into multiple sites. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci USA. 96, 10056-10061.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10468561/