Chlorophyll Organization And Energy Transfer In Photosynthesis

The Novartis Foundation Series is a popular collection of the proceedings from Novartis Foundation Symposia, in which groups of leading scientists from a range of topics across biology, chemistry and medicine assembled to present papers and discuss results. The Novartis Foundation, originally known as the Ciba Foundation, is well known to scientists and clinicians around the world.

Bioenergetics of Photosynthesis covers the transformation of energy in biological systems, with an emphasis on photosynthesis. The biochemical and biophysical aspects are given much focus in this book. The historical development of the concepts used in this book is reviewed. This reference also analyzes experimental data and their results. This publication contains 12 chapters. The first chapter introduces the concept of photosynthesis. Then, the next chapter explores the relationship between chloroplast structure and function . Other concepts covered in this book include the primary events (energy transfer and light absorption), delayed light emission, and chlorophyll fluorescence. The mechanism of excitation energy, oxygen evolution, and chlorophyll fluorescence are also explained. Furthermore, this book discusses the electron transport pathway, primary acts of energy conservation in chloroplast membranes, and molecular organization of chlorophyll. Finally, it describes the relationship of the structure of chloroplast membrane to energy coupling and ion transport. This book will be a good resource for students and researchers alike, especially in the fields of cell biology, plant physiology, biochemistry, and biophysics.

Concepts of Biology is designed for the single-semester introduction to biology course for non-science majors, which for many students is their only college-level science course. As such, this course represents an important opportunity for students to develop the necessary knowledge, tools, and skills to make informed decisions as they continue with their lives. Rather than being mired down with facts and vocabulary, the typical non-science major student needs information presented in a way that is easy to read and understand. Even more importantly, the content should be meaningful. Students do much better when they understand why biology is relevant to their everyday lives. For these reasons, Concepts of Biology is grounded on an evolutionary basis and includes exciting features that highlight careers in the biological sciences and everyday applications of the concepts at hand.We also strive to show the interconnectedness of topics within this extremely broad discipline. In order to meet the needs of today's instructors and students, we maintain the overall organization and coverage found in most syllabi for this course. A strength of Concepts of Biology is that instructors can customize the book, adapting it to the approach that works best in their classroom. Concepts of Biology also includes an innovative art program that incorporates critical thinking and clicker questions to help students understand--and apply--key concepts.

Chlorophyll a Fluorescence: A Signature of Photosynthesis highlights chlorophyll (Chl) a fluorescence as a convenient, non-invasive, highly sensitive, rapid and quantitative probe of oxygenic photosynthesis. Thirty-one chapters, authored by 58 international experts, provide a solid foundation of the basic theory, as well as of the application of the rich information contained in the Chl a fluorescence signal as it relates to photosynthesis and plant productivity. Although the primary photochemical reactions of photosynthesis are highly efficient, a small fraction of absorbed photons escapes as Chl fluorescence, and this fraction varies with metabolic state, providing a basis for monitoring quantitatively various processes of photosynthesis. The book explains the mechanisms with which plants defend themselves against environmental stresses (excessive light, extreme temperatures, drought, hyper-osmolarity, heavy metals and UV). It also includes discussion on fluorescence imaging of leaves and cells and the remote sensing of Chl fluorescence from terrestrial, airborne, and satellite bases. The book is intended for use by graduate students, beginning researchers and advanced undergraduates in the areas of integrative plant biology, cellular and molecular biology, plant biology, biochemistry, biophysics, plant physiology, global ecology and agriculture.

The first dedicated new work since 1991, this book reviews recent progress and current studies in the chemistry, metabolism and spectroscopy of chlorophylls, bacteriochlorophylls and their protein complexes. Also discussed is progress on the applications of chlorophylls as photosensitizers in photodynamic therapy of cancerous tumours, and as molecular probes in biochemistry, medicine, plant physiology, ecology and geochemistry. Each section offers an introductory overview followed by concise, focused and fully-referenced chapters written by experts.

To address the environmental, socioeconomic, and geopolitical issues associated with increasing global human energy consumption, technologies for utilizing renewable carbon-free or carbon-neutral energy sources must be identified and developed. Among renewable sources, solar energy is quite promising as it alone is sufficient to meet global human demands well into the foreseeable future. However, it is diffuse and diurnal. Thus effective strategies must be developed for its capture, conversion and storage. In this context, photosynthesis provides a paradigm for large-scale deployment. Photosynthesis occurs in plants, algae, and cyanobacteria and has evolved over 3 billion years. The process of photosynthesis currently produces more than 100 billion tons of dry biomass annually, which equates to a global energy storage rate of ~100 TW. Recently, detailed structural information on the natural photosynthetic systems has been acquired at the molecular level, providing a foundation for comprehensive functional studies of the photosynthetic process. Likewise, sophisticated spectroscopic techniques have revealed important mechanistic details. Such accomplishments have made it possible for scientists and engineers to construct artificial systems for solar energy transduction that are inspired by their biological counterparts. The book contains articles written by experts and world leaders in their respective fields and summarizes the exciting breakthroughs toward understanding the structures and mechanisms of the photosynthetic apparatus as well as efforts toward developing revolutionary new energy conversion technologies. The topics/chapters will be organized in terms of the natural sequence of events occurring in the process of photosynthesis, while keeping a higher-order organization of structure and mechanism as well as the notion that biology can inspire human technologies. For example, the topic of light harvesting, will be followed by charge separation at reaction centers, followed by charge stabilization, followed by chemical reactions, followed by protection mechanisms, followed by other more specialized topics and finally ending with artificial systems and looking forward. As shown in the table of contents (TOC), the book includes and integrates topics on the structures and mechanisms of photosynthesis, and provides relevant information on applications to bioenergy and solar energy transduction.