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Firstly, the pH value of the medium surrounding the thylakoid membrane reacts highly dynamically to light changes.

These structures, called thylakoid membranes, are the oldest ever discovered.

This discovery puts into perspective the role of cyanobacteria with thylakoid membranes in early Earth oxygenation.

But to get the whole process to run on sunlight—the first step—Erb and his colleagues turned to chloroplast components called thylakoid membranes, pouchlike assemblies that hold chlorophyll and other photosynthesizing enzymes.

Other researchers had previously shown that thylakoid membranes can operate outside plant cells.