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Review
. 2016 Dec 21:5:2890.
doi: 10.12688/f1000research.9744.1. eCollection 2016.

Recent advances in understanding photosynthesis

Ulf-Ingo Flügge  1 , Peter Westhoff  2 , Dario Leister  3
Affiliations
Review

Recent advances in understanding photosynthesis

Ulf-Ingo Flügge et al. F1000Res. .

Abstract

Photosynthesis is central to all life on earth, providing not only oxygen but also organic compounds that are synthesized from atmospheric CO 2 and water using light energy as the driving force. The still-increasing world population poses a serious challenge to further enhance biomass production of crop plants. Crop yield is determined by various parameters, inter alia by the light energy conversion efficiency of the photosynthetic machinery. Photosynthesis can be looked at from different perspectives: (i) light reactions and carbon assimilation, (ii) leaves and canopy structure, and (ii) source-sink relationships. In this review, we discuss opportunities and prospects to increase photosynthetic performance at the different layers, taking into account the recent progress made in the respective fields.

Keywords: assimilation reactions; light-dependent reactions; photosynthetic organisms.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests. No competing interests were disclosed. No competing interests were disclosed. No competing interests were disclosed.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. The process of photosynthesis viewed from different perspectives.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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