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The main challenge however lays in increasing crop yields without encumbering land and water resources nor by burdening the environment with an excess of herbicides or nitrogen-rich manure. Current photosynthesis research is much inspired by the call for a sustainable agriculture and the tuning of food, feed, and energy production in respect to each other (Nair, 2014). Presently achieved crop yields however lay far below the projected needs required to meet the predicted population growth, threatening global food security (Fedoroff et al., 2010 Long, 2014). The global demand of nutrition largely depends on photosynthesis efficiency. Photosynthesis at the forefront of a secure food supply

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The full process can be summarised in a single equation: The splitting of water (H 2O) giving off oxygen gas (O 2) is a complex event, requiring the absorption of solar energy by a set of aligned chlorophyll (Chl) pigments that as a result release electrons to convert CO 2 to carbohydrates, a reaction known as carbon fixation. Green plants, algae and cyanobacteria are able to oxidise water for photosynthesis and hence are oxygenic, in contrast to other phototrophs that use different electron donors, such as hydrogen sulfide. This deceivingly simple process forms the basis for all the energy sources essential to life, from the intake of food to the burning of fossil fuels, and more recently, for the industrial production of value-added chemicals or bio-energy. Photosynthesis is one of the most efficiently cycled and sustainable processes we know in Nature. It is mandatory however that this is done in an interdisciplinary way following a holistic approach. Innovations in agriculture no doubt will have a great impact on sustainability since they would address the usage and purification of water, the availability of good-quality soil, the supply of energy including вЂњgreenвЂќ energy, the importance of biodiversity, and above all, the command and safety of food and feed. In the next 10вЂ“20 years, a steady increase of the global population, continuous competition for land, water, and energy, and the worsening effects brought by climate change will be the three foremost science policy-determining factors. Sustainability however does not come about by its own but requires dynamic and responsible actions to create and maintain a balance between society, environment, and economy. Sustainability has been described by the European Union as follows: вЂњStrictly speaking sustainability implies the use of resources at rates that do not exceed the capacity of the Earth to replace them.вЂќ ( ). The following review covers some of the major milestones reached in photosynthesis research, each reflecting lasting routes of innovation in agriculture, environmental protection, and clean energy production. So, even after a few billion years of evolution, this process unceasingly supports life on earth, and probably soon also in outer-space, and inspires the development of enabling technologies for a sustainable global economy and ecosystem.

Oxygenic photosynthesis is responsible for most of the oxygen, fossil fuels, and biomass on our planet. The success of this process relies on its capability to exploit the almost inexhaustible reservoirs of sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to transform photonic energy into chemical energy such as stored in adenosine triphosphate. The biochemistry of this intricate process is empowered by solar radiation influx and performed by hierarchically organized complexes composed by photoreceptors, inorganic catalysts, and enzymes which define specific niches for optimizing light-to-energy conversion. In nature, perhaps the best example of an authentic sustainable system is oxygenic photosynthesis. The development of a sustainable bio-based economy has drawn much attention in recent years, and research to find smart solutions to the many inherent challenges has intensified.

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