Figure 1.
The motto of the Photosynthesis Congress in Brisbane in 2001 was that ‘photosynthesis simply sustains all life on Earth’. For this reason, photosynthesis is a large, well-researched area, so it is especially ambitious to put together a handbook that attempts to cover the whole subject. This volume is definitely not a handbook in the sense that it provides a compendium for the novice, but instead it is a conspectus of areas of current research interest.
There is a broad coverage of the subject area, with a fair degree of prominence given to crop productivity and stress. The book comprises 46 chapters organized into 14 sections. These sections range from the biochemistry of photosynthesis, including topics as diverse as chlorophyll biosynthesis, chloroplast biogenesis and the role of phosphorus in photosynthetic carbon metabolism. Then there are sections on molecular aspects of photosynthesis (seven chapters), photosynthesis and the environment (five chapters), photosynthetic pathways in crop plants (two chapters), photosynthesis in different parts of the plant (one chapter), crop productivity and photosynthate formation (two chapters), measurement of pigments and photosynthetic activity (three chapters), and a large section on photosynthesis and stress, mainly drought and salt stress (nine chapters). I found the sections rather contrived and would rather have seen fewer of them. There are good chapters on a spectrum of topics ranging from chlorophyll biosynthesis, aspects of photosystems 1 and 2, multi-enzyme complexes, photoinhibition and energy dissipation, regulation of photosynthesis during leaf development, photosynthate partitioning, to effects of stress on photosynthesis. Then there are topics which make one think anew about an area, such as the role of cytochrome c6 in photosynthesis, the origins of the mid-day depression of photosynthesis, and the potential for improvement of radiation use efficiency in crops.
The chapters are quite variable in length, content and degree of referencing. Some chapters are rather parochial in content, and thus very specialist, while others seek to cover large areas, sometimes in too brief a manner. Some offer a very personal perspective. The handbook is thus very much a curate's egg (good in parts!). These points are amply illustrated by considering the coverage of C4 photosynthesis. Chapter 46 (Origin and Evolution of C4 Photosynthesis) initially excited my interest, until I found that it is only eight pages long and barely does justice to either topic. There is a useful discussion of past changes in the composition of the atmosphere, but beyond that I don't think that either the novice or the expert would be much the wiser. Then there is a general chapter on C3, C4 and CAM, which one would hope might be useful to students. In practice, it neither serves as a good general introduction (there is only one diagram, for example), nor is it up-to-date (for example, C4 photosynthesis occurs in 19, not 10, plant families) or detailed enough for researchers in the area. In stark contrast, there is an excellent chapter (Chapter 22, Photosynthesis in Nontypical [sic] C4 Species) that is a well-illustrated and well-referenced account covering a great deal of recent research into single-celled C4 systems. There is also a good short review of the consequences of rising atmospheric CO2 on C4 photosynthesis. But why weren't these four chapters placed together in one section?
Chapters in another section (Photosynthetic Activity Measurement and Analysis of Photosynthetic Pigments) are of similarly disparate quality. An excellent and thoughtful chapter on the relationship between CO2 assimilation and growth is followed by a couple that are fairly baffling. One (Approaches to Measuring Plant Photosynthetic Activity) concentrates on excessively detailed methods and recent research results rather than on the bigger picture, while another chapter (Analysis of Photosynthetic Pigments) is excessively general and does not give any real clues as to the problems encountered in, for example, chlorophyll extraction and assay, or direct the reader to any clearly recommended methods. In my view a handbook should contain precisely such information.
The book is well produced, and the double-column format is easy on the eye. The figures are generally clear and well reproduced, although I would have welcomed more of them. Despite the fact that it is not suited to undergraduates, I did find material that will be useful for teaching. It is for the specialist areas that researchers will find the book most useful. It is thus very much a book for the library of research institutions.