Current Topics in Bioenergetics

Current Topics in Bioenergetics, Volume 16 focuses on photosynthetic electron transfer, ATP-synthesizing reactions, and nitrogen fixation. It looks at the application of biochemistry and biophysics in the exploitation of gene isolation, sequencing, and analysis of structure and function. It also reviews photosystems I and II and electron transfer reactions in eukaryotic chloroplasts of more modern plants as well as in photosynthetic membranes of the very ancient cyanobacteria. Organized into seven chapters, this volume begins with an overview of photosystems I and II. Then, it discusses the ATP synthesis in chloroplasts, with special attention given to the genes and their protein products that produce the ATP synthase complexes of the plant mitochondria and chloroplasts. The reader is then introduced to the mechanism of proton gradient formation and calcium-gated control of the type of gradient formed, the evidence for localized domains of proton accumulation, the reaction center of purple bacteria, and the physical aspects of electron transfer. The final chapter examines the nitrogen fixation in plants and bacteria, with emphasis on the metabolic origins of the reducing power and ATP used in nitrogen fixation. Biophysicists, biochemists, and others interested in bioenergetics will find this book highly informative.