Photosynthesis Research in Canada from 1945 to the early 1970s
2006
This history traces the development of photosynthesis research in Canada from 1945 to 1975, starting with the work of Gleb1 Krotkov and his students, Paul Vittorio, Tony1 Bidwell, Don1 Nelson, Jim1 Craigie, Bruce Tregunna, Andreas Hauschild, Geoff Lister and others in the Department of Biology at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario. They focused on the influence of taxonomy and light quality on the path of carbon into early products, photorespiration and photosynthesis in young trees. During the same period, Ken1 Clendenning and one of the authors (PRG) at the National Research Council of Canada (NRCC) laboratory in Ottawa began studies of chloroplast photoreduction and leaf carboxylases. They were joined by Don1 Mortimer, who showed that the path of carbon varies with species of plant and by Morris Kates, who studied phospholipid enzymology in chloroplasts and leaves. Stan1 Holt researched the chemistry and distribution of chlorophylls in different taxa. In 1952, Ralph Lewin joined NRCC’s new Atlantic Regional Laboratory in Halifax, Nova Scotia, followed by Jim Craigie, Jack McLachlan and Tony Bidwell who mainly investigated the products of photosynthesis in marine algae. Tony Bidwell continued these studies in 1959 at the Department of Botany, University of Toronto. Dave1 Canvin joined the staff at Queen’s in 1965 and became involved in solving the mystery of photorespiration. Tony Bidwell returned to Queen’s in 1969 and studied photosynthesis of algal chloroplasts using an ‘artificial leaf.’ In 1965, Don Nelson established a group at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia that included his former student, Geoff Lister who produced the first photosynthetic action spectra for trees, and Bill1 Vidaver, who showed the useful relation between chlorophyll fluorescence and photosynthetic activity. In 1970, Mario Fragata headed a group at the Universite du Quebec a Trois Rivieres, Quebec, that began with studies of Photosystem II in chloroplasts and particles.
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