The laboratory focuses on the study of photosynthesis in higher plants, mosses, lichens and green algae using fluorometric, gasometric and biochemical methods.

Currently, the main research direction is the stress physiology of photosynthesis of lichens or their autotrophic symbionts, green algae of the genus Trebouxia. In particular, the photochemical processes of photosynthesis, i.e. the function of photosystem II under different limiting conditions (drought stress, photoinhibitory stress, low temperature stress, osmotic stress, toxic substances) are studied. Emphasis is placed on photoinhibition and photoprotective mechanisms at the level of pigment-protein complexes of the chloroplast thylakoid membrane (photoinactivation of PS II, non-photochemical quenching of excitation energy and its components, activation of xanthophyll cycle pigment conversion). No less attention is paid to antioxidant enzymes and substrates and their redox state and dynamics during radiation stress and photoinhibition of photosynthesis, respectively.

Working Group on Photosynthesis of Extremophilic Organisms (EEL) - group leader Miloš Barták
Ecophysiology and Experimental Algology Working Group - group leader Peter Váczi