Lecture: 2.

3 PHOTOSYNTHESIS
Life on Earth is solar powered. The chloroplasts in plants and other photosynthetic
organisms capture light energy from the sun and convert it to chemical energy that is stored
in sugar and other organic molecules. This conversion process is called photosynthesis.
Almost all plants are autotrophs; the only nutrients they require are water and
minerals from the soil and carbon dioxide from the air. Specifically, plants are
photoautotrophs, organisms that use light as a source of energy to synthesize organic
substances. Photosynthesis also occurs in algae like kelp, certain other unicellular
eukaryotes, and some prokaryotes

On the other hands, heterotrophs obtain organic material by the second major mode
of nutrition. Unable to make their own food, they live on compounds produced by other
organisms, the autotrophs.

Photosynthesis Converts Light Energy To Chemical Energy Of Food

Chloroplasts: The sites of photosynthesis in plants. All green parts of a plant, including
green stems and unripened fruit, have chloroplasts, but the leaves are the major sites of
photosynthesis in most plants . There are about half a million chloroplasts in a chunk of leaf
with a top surface area of 1 mm 2. Chloroplasts are found mainly in the cells of the
mesophyll, the tissue in the interior of the leaf. Carbon dioxide enters the leaf, and oxygen
exits, by way of microscopic pores called stomata (singular, stoma; from the Greek,
meaning “mouth”). Water absorbed by the roots is delivered to the leaves in veins. Leaves
also use veins to export sugar to roots and other non-photosynthetic parts of the plant.
(singular, stoma; from the Greek, meaning “mouth”). Water absorbed by the roots is
delivered to the leaves in veins. Leaves also use veins to export sugar to roots and other
non-photosynthetic parts of the plant.
A chloroplast has an envelope of two membranes surrounding a dense fluid called the
stroma. Suspended within the stroma is a third membrane system, made up of sacs called
thylakoids, which segregates the stroma from the thylakoid space inside these sacs. In
some places, thylakoid sacs are stacked in columns called grana (singular, granum).
Chlorophyll, the green pigment that gives leaves their color, resides in the thylakoid
membranes of the chloroplast.
It is the light energy absorbed by chlorophyll that drives the synthesis of organic
molecules in the chloroplast. Now that we have looked at the sites of photosynthesis in
plants, we are ready to look more closely
at the process of photosynthesis.

The Process That Feeds the Biosphere - Photosynthesis

6 CO2 + 6 H2O C6H12O6 + 6 O2
The equation for photosynthesis may look simple but actually it is a very complex
process.
It involves two stages, which involve a step by step series of chemical reaction.
1. Light reactions (the photo part of photosynthesis) - which capture solar energy and
transform it into chemical energy; and
2. Calvin cycle (the synthesis part) - which uses that chemical energy to make the organic
molecules of food.

During photosynthesis, plants carry out three vital energy conversions;

1. Conversion of light energy to electron energy
2. Conversion of electron energy to short-term energy storage (ATP)
3. Conversion of short-term energy storage (ATP) to long-term energy storage (sugars)
Light Dependent Reactions
 The light dependent reactions capture the energy of sunlight, storing it as chemical
energy in two different energy-carrier molecules ATP and NADPH). The chemical energy
stored in these molecules will be used to power the synthesis of high- energy storage
molecules like glucose, during light- independent reactions. As the term implies, light-
dependent reactions can take place only in the presence of light (solar energy). The light-
dependent reactions take place in the thylakoid membranes, or grana, of the chloroplasts.
The thylakoid membranes contain highly organized assemblies of proteins, chlorophyll and
the photosystems.
The process begins with Photosystem II, where trapped light energy is used to split water, a
process known as photolysis:
H2O → 2H++ 2e− + ½O2
The electrons are used to generate ATP, by passing them along a series of electron
carriers, losing energy as they do so, before they join Photosystem I, replacing electrons
lost there.
Photosystem I also traps light energy, and uses it to excite electrons along a series of
carrier molecules. Combined with the H+ ions formed in Photosystem I, they react with
NADP to produce reduced NADP (also known as NADPH2):
NADP + 2H+ + 2e− → reduced NADP
The end-products of the light reaction are thus ATP and reduced NADP, (also called
NADPH) which move into the stroma of the chloroplast ready to act as the raw materials for
the light-independent reactions (see figure above) Notice that the light reactions produce no
sugar; that happens in the second stage of photosynthesis, the Calvin cycle.

Light Independent Reactions (Calvin Cycle)

This process was named from the fact that they do not require light to take place.
The Calvin cycle is named for Melvin Calvin, who, along with his colleagues James
Bassham and Andrew Benson, began to simplify its steps. Calvin cycle is anabolic, building
carbohydrates from smaller molecules and consuming energy. Carbon enters the Calvin
cycle in the form of CO 2 and leaves in the form of sugar. The cycle spends ATP as an
energy source and consumes NADPH as reducing power for adding high-energy electrons
to make the sugar. The carbohydrate produced directly from the Calvin cycle is actually not
glucose, but a three-carbon sugar; the name of this sugar is glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate
(G3P). For the net synthesis of one molecule of G3P, the cycle must take place three times,
fixing three molecules of CO2—one per turn of the cycle.
Calvin cycle is divided into three phases: carbon fixation, reduction, and regeneration of
the CO2 acceptor.

Phase 1: Carbon fixation. The Calvin cycle incorporates each CO2 molecule, one at
a time, by attaching it to a five-carbon sugar named ribulose bisphosphate(RuBP).
The enzyme that catalyzes this first step is RuBP carboxylase-oxygenase, or
(rubisco) - the most abundant protein in chloroplasts and is also thought to be the
most abundant protein on Earth.
Phase 2: Reduction. Each molecule of 3-phosphoglycerate receives an additional
phosphate group from ATP, becoming 1,3-bisphosphoglycerate. Next, a pair of
electrons donated from NADPH reduces 1,3-bisphosphoglycerate, which also loses a
phosphate group in the process, becoming glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate (G3P).
Phase 3: Regeneration of the CO2 acceptor (RuBP). In a complex series of
reactions, the carbon skeletons of five molecules of G3P are rearranged by the last
steps of the Calvin cycle into three molecules of RuBP. To accomplish this, the cycle
spends three more molecules of ATP. The RuBP is now prepared to receive CO 2
again, and the cycle continues.