The Photochemistry of Carotenoids

Each of the twenty chapters in The Photochemistry of Carotenoids is written by leading experts in the area of carotenoid research and gives a comprehensive overview of a particular topic in the field. The book is organized into five sub-areas: (1) Biosynthetic pathways and the distribution of carotenoids in photosynthetic organisms; (2) Structure of carotenoid-chlorophyll protein complexes; (3) Electronic structure, stereochemistry, spectroscopy, dynamics and radicals; (4) Eco-physiology and the xanthophyll cycle; and (5) Model systems. Correlations between the photochemical behavior of carotenoids in vitro and in vivo are discussed. The various contributions review the basic hypotheses about how carotenoids function and give details regarding testing different molecular models using state-of-the-art experimental methodologies. The book is intended for use by beginning graduate and advanced undergraduate students and researchers in Plant Physiology, Ecology, Microbiology, Biochemistry, Biophysics and Medicine, and will also be extremely useful as a general reference on photochemical processes in Chemistry, Physics and Biology.