Scientific American, June 1987, 256:42-48
Youvan, D.C., and Marrs, B.L.
Photosynthesis, the process by which light from the sun is converted into the energy necessary for the vital functions of living things, is the keystone of life on the earth. The energy captured by photosynthesis ultimately feeds not only the photosynthesizing organisms themselves but also the animal that feed on photosynthesizing organisms, the creatures that feed on those animals and so on down the food chain. How does photosynthesis work? At the molecular level, what are the interactions that capture the energy of sunlight and turn it into the energy of life? What is the architecture-the organization in space-of the molecules involved? And how does that particular architecture give rise to the speed and efficiency of the photosynthetic process?
These fundamental questions are now yielding answers. Through the separate efforts of workers in such disparate fields as spectroscopy, X-ray crystallography and molecular genetics, the molecular mechanisms of one kind of photosynthesis-the photosynthesis of certain bacteria-have been pictured in great detail.
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