Photosynthesis

The aim of this book is to provide new progresses on applied aspects of photosynthesis, and different research groups collected their voluble results from study of this interesting process.

Photosynthesis: Photobiochemistry and Photobiophysics is the first single-authored book in the Advances in Photosynthesis Series. It provides an overview of the light reactions and electron transfers in both oxygenic and anoxygenic photosynthesis. The scope of the book is characterized by the time frame in which the light reactions and the subsequent electron transfers take place, namely between <=10-12 and >=10-3 second. The book is divided into five parts: An Overview; Bacterial Photosynthesis; Photosystem II & Oxygen Evolution; Photosystem I; and Proton Transport and Photophosphorylation. In discussing the structure and function of various protein complexes, we begin with an introductory chapter, followed by chapters on light-harvesting complexes, the primary electron donors and the primary electron acceptors, and finally the secondary electron donors.

"Life Is Bottled Sunshine" [Wynwood Reade, Martyrdom of Man, 1924]. This inspired phrase is a four-word summary of the significance of photosynthesis for life on earth. The study of photosynthesis has attracted the attention of a legion of biologists, biochemists, chemists and physicists for over 200 years. Discoveries in Photosynthesis presents a sweeping overview of the history of photosynthesis investigations, and detailed accounts of research progress in all aspects of the most complex bioenergetic process in living organisms. Conceived of as a way of summarizing the history of research advances in photosynthesis as of millennium 2000, the book evolved into a majestic and encyclopedic saga involving all of the basic sciences.

Lipids in Photosynthesis: Essential and Regulatory Functions, provides an essential summary of an exciting decade of research on relationships between lipids and photosynthesis. The book brings together extensively cross-referenced and peer-reviewed chapters by prominent researchers.