Photophysiology

Photophysiology: Current Topics in Photobiology and Photochemistry, Volume VI is a collection of papers that discusses photobiological phenomena found on cells of organisms. The papers in this collection deal with specialized areas of photobiology. One paper describes the instruments used in measuring the course of chlorophyll fluorescence in vivo that occurs when a chlorophyll molecule, stimulated by a light source, returns to its ground state from a previous first singlet state, resulting in a light emission lasting for a few nanoseconds. Another paper discusses the mechanism of light-induced carotenoid synthesis in nonphotosynthetic plants, including temperature-independent photochemical reactions, which results in the organism's producing carotenoids on subsequent incubations in darkness. One paper also explains photosensitization observed in mutant cells resulting from exposure to specific wavelength of light in the presence of a natural sensitizer. This paper points out that there are four main groups of photosensitizers, namely, the hypericins, chlorophylls, porphyrins, and psoralens. This book can prove valuable for cell biologists, micro-biologists, students, and researchers involved in the fields of photobiology and photochemistry.