ABSTRACT
This chapter presents our understanding of plant photosynthesis primarily at the level of the chloroplast with initial emphasis upon the utilization of light to photoassimilate the essential elements carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus followed by a consideration of the chloroplast as it partitions assimilates with the rest of the plant. It considers the action of herbicides and other inhibitors on the physiological and biochemical functions of photosynthesis. Photosynthetic assimilation not only involves light, CO2, and H2O, but the process also provides plants with a mechanism for assimilating other essential elements. Our understanding of photosynthesis as an assimilatory process for essential elements, other than carbon, has been developing over the last half century. The chapter utilises assimilation to refer to the net incorporation of an element into plant organic matter. Data and ideas on the photosynthetic assimilation of nitrogen have been accumulating which emphasize the central role of plants in biological nitrogen assimilation.
