Photosynthetic Unit And Photosystems

Wild, Aloysius & Ball, Raphael

PHOTOSYNTHETIC UNIT AND PHOTOSYSTEMS

Backhuys Publishers, Leiden, 1997

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1	Part A: Early concepts of photosynthesis
1.1	Assimilation theories: photosynthetic function and mechanism	1
1.1.1	Early assimilation theories: basis and historical introduction	1
1.1.2	Concepts of photosynthetic processes and mechanisms until the discovery of the HILL reaction in 1937	3
1.1.3	Early studies on the energy conversion in photosynthesis	10
1.1.4	The theory of the photosynthetic unit	14
1.1.5	Assimilation theories in the context of quantum yield	20
1.1.6	Summary	26
1.2	Structure of chloroplasts and grana	28
1.2.1	Introduction	28
1.2.2	Discoveries in the 1920s and 1930s	29
1.2.3	Achievements in the 1950s	34
1.2.4	Summary	41
1.3	An attempt to relate structure and function: the quantasome hypothesis and the background of a nearly forgotten term	42
1.3.1	Starting conditions	42
1.3.2	The quantasome hypothesis	43
1.3.3	The end of an idea: the quantasome hypothesis in the cross-fire of critique	51
1.3.4	The quantasomes are dead; long live the quantasomes! (Aftermath of a term)	54
1.3.5	Summary	56
2	Part B: New results
2.1	The discovery of the photosystems in the 1960s before a background of various photosynthesis theoriesm	57
2.1.1	Photosynthesis research at the beginning of the 1950s: foundations and open questions leading to photosystem theories	57
2.1.2	The concept of two cooperating photosystems: conditions and foundations	63
2.1.3	The Z scheme of photosynthesis	66
2.1.4	Alternatives to the Z scheme	72
2.1.5	Mutant algae blur the classic picture of photosynthesis	79
2.1.6	Summary	80
2.2	The resurgence of the photosynthetic unit and its modern revision	82
2.2.1	Introduction	82
2.2.2	Doubts about the experimental and theoretical concept of the photosynthetic unit	83
2.2.3	The size of the photosynthetic unit and its variability in aurea plants	85
2.2.4	Dynamics of the photosynthetic unit under different light conditions	92
2.2.5	Changes, differences, and misunderstandings in the definition of the photosynthetic unit	110
3	Part C: A current view of the photosynthetic apparatus
3.1	Understanding the photosystems	127
3.1.1	Introduction	127
3.1.2	The reaction center of purple bacteria	129
3.1.3	Photosystem II core complex	131
3.1.4	Photosystem I core complex	153
3.1.5	PSII type and PSI type reaction centers	169
3.1.6	Reaction center complex of green sulfur bacteria	172
3.1.7	Reaction center complex of heliobacteria	175
3.1.8	Lateral segregation of the two photosystems	180
3.1.9	Light-harvesting antennae in higher plants	183
3.1.10	Light-harvesting complexes of photosynthetic purple bacteria	203
4	Index of names