title: Recent advances in understanding photosynthesis.
abstract: Photosynthesis is central to all life on earth, providing not only oxygen but also organic compounds that are synthesized from atmospheric CO2and 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 aliaby 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.
authors.affiliation: Cologne Biocenter, Botanical Institute II and Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences (CEPLAS), University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: Ulf-Ingo
authors.initials: UI
authors.lastname: Flügge
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology and Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences (CEPLAS), Heinrich-Heine University, Düsseldorf, Germany.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Westhoff
authors.affiliation: Plant Molecular Biology, Department of Biology I, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Dario
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Leister
keywords: assimilation reactions; light-dependent reactions; photosynthetic organisms