Photosynthesis: Basics to Applications

This book contains selected overviews on several important aspects of photosynthesis, and provides both tutorial content and critical insight into the future of photosynthesis research. Photosynthesis has been a challenging scientific topic, which involves a complex biochemical and biophysical process. Deeper and greater understanding of this process holds a promise for a sustainable Earth, with a pollution-free environment necessitating advent of newer technologies for food and cleaner energy. There have beenglobal efforts to mimic the photosynthetic process to meet the needs of the future. This book, with 19 articles, provides not only the basics of the process and its applications, but it also gives a glimpse of the recent progress and future perspective on photosynthesis.Salient features:High quality peer-reviewed articles, accompanied by in-text citation of milestone research, with full references at the end of each articleContribution by sixty four eminent researchers and academicians from Asia, Europe, USA, Canada, and RussiaOne of the rare unifying themes under photosynthesis research, which is “regulation of photosynthesis by various limiting/stress factors”State-of-the-art analytical techniques, well-laid-out results and findings, and pictures and diagrams (many in color)With its unique coverage and emphasis, this book will be useful for not only researchers, but teachers and students as well. It can be used both as a reference as well as a text book for courses in Plant Biology, Environmental Biology, and Agriculture. About the Author Shigeru Itoh is Professor Emeritus at the Center for Gene Research, Nagoya University, Japan; earlier, he was professor in Physics, in the Division of Materials Science, at Nagoya University. He has a 1974 Doctor of Science in Biochemistry from the University of Tokyo, Japan. Itoh has also held academic positions at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA; National Institute for Basic Biology, Okazaki, Japan; Kyushu University, Japan; and University of Bristol, UK. He is an international authority in the area of Biophysics and Biochemistry of Photosynthesis; he works with photosynthetic bacteria, cyanobacteria, lichens, mosses, and higher plants.Prasanna Mohanty was a Professor in the School of Life Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. He had a 1972 Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. Mohanty had also held academic positions at the University of Western Ontario, Canada; National Institute for Basic Biology, Okazaki, Japan; and in India at the University of Hyderabad; University of Indore; Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi; and the Regional Plant Resource Center, Bhubaneswar, Odisha. He was an international authority on Bioenergetics and Photo-biochemistry of Oxygenic Photosynthesis; he had worked with cyanobacteria, algae and plants.Kadur N. Guruprasad is Professor in the School of Life Sciences, Devi Ahilya University, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India. He has a 1979 Ph.D. in Botany from Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, India. Guruprasad specializes in the area of Photobiology and has a vast experience of teaching and research in this area. He has been a Japan Society of Promotion of Science (JSPS) visiting scientist at Kobe University, Kobe, Japan and at the Department of Biophysics, Moscow University, Moscow, Russia. He is an authority in the area of impact of UV radiation on Plant Photomorphogenesis and Photosynthesis.