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The Minimum Kinetic Mechanism of Photosynthesis

Abstract

KINETICS of photosynthesis recently proposed in these columns1,2,3 fail to account for all temperature coefficients observed, for demonstrable reversibility of the carbon dioxide–chlorophyll complex, and for known or deducible characteristics of the Blackman reaction. The following kinetic mechanism of photosynthesis, supported in every detail elsewhere4, is proposed as representing the minimum number of photochemical and thermal reactions needed to cover the several major facts now established for many chlorophyllous plants in connexion with the following variables: temperature T, light intensity L, concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2), amount of chlorophyll per unit volume (Ch1), concentration of internal Blackman reaction component (E), and specific and indifferent narcotics, intermittent illumination, fluorescence5 and induction6:

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References

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BURK, D., LINEWEAVER, H. The Minimum Kinetic Mechanism of Photosynthesis. Nature 135, 621–622 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/135621a0

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