Photosynthesis

in
Higher Plants - I
Presentation by
Dr. P. Pukazhvanthen., M.Sc (JIPMER), Ph.D (ICMR-NIRT).

1
Overview of Photosynthesis
Overview of Photosynthesis

Importance of Photosynthesis
 Variegated leaf Experiment Half leaf Experiment

 On testing these leaves  The exposed part of the leaf tested

for starch it was clear that photosynthesis positive for starch while the portion
occurred only in the green that was in the tube, tested negative.
parts of the leaves in the presence of light. This showed that CO2 was required for
photosynthesis.
 EARLY EXPERIMENTS
1. Priestley’s experiment (1770).
2. Experiments by Jan Ingenhousz (1730-1799).
3. Experiment by T.W.Engelmann
4. Experiment by Cornelius van Niel.
Photosynthesis: Site and Pigments

Chloroplast
Structure of chloroplast
Ultra structure of Chloroplast
Ultra structure of Chloroplast
Ultra structure of Chloroplast
Pigments
Electromagnetic spectrum
Structure of Chlorophylls

Chlorophyll a : C55H72O5N4Mg
Chlorophyll b : C55H70O6N4Mg
 Role of Pigments in Photosynthesis

Absorption Spectrum Action Spectrum Superimposed

of Photosynthesis of Pigments Action spectrum with
Absorption Spectrum

# In the blue and red regions of spectrum shows higher rate of Photosynthesis.
Photosystems
Mechanism of light harvest by Photosystem
 Process of Photosynthesis
 It includes two phases – i. Photochemical phase (Light Reaction)
ii. Biosynthetic phase (Dark Reaction)
i. Photochemical phase (Light reaction).
 Process which takes place in the presence of light only. It includes
 Light absorption,
 Splitting of water,
 Evolution of oxygen,
 Formation of high energy compounds like ATP and NADPH.

 Several complexes are involved in the process.

 The pigments are organised into two discrete photochemical light harvesting
complexes (LHC) within the Photosystem I (PS I) and Photosystem II (PS II).

 The LHC are made up of hundreds of pigment molecules bound to proteins. Each
photosystem has all the pigments (except one molecule of chlorophyll a ) forming a
light harvesting system also called antennae.

 The single chlorophyll a molecule forms the Reaction centre.

Working of PS I and PS II
Organization of photosystems and ETC and ATP synthase complexes

# Stroma Lamella has PS I, but lacks PS II as well as NADP reductase.

# Grana Lamella has PS I and PS II.
 The Electron Transport
 When PS II absorbs red light of 680 nm wavelength, electrons are excited and
transferred to an electron acceptor.
 The Electron acceptor passes them to a chain of electron transport system consisting
of cytochromes.
 This movement of electrons is downhill, in terms of redox potential scale.
 The electrons are transferred to the pigments of PS I.
 Simultaneously, electrons in the reaction centre of PS I are also excited when they
receive red light of wavelength 700 nm and are transferred to another accepter
molecule that has a greater redox potential.
 These electrons then are moved downhill to a molecule of energy-rich NADP+.
 The addition of these electrons reduces NADP+ to NADPH + H+.
 This whole scheme of transfer of electrons, starting from the PS II, uphill to the
acceptor, down the electron transport chain to PS I, excitation of electrons, transfer
to another acceptor, and finally down hill to NADP+ causing it to be reduced to
NADPH + H+ is called the Z scheme.
Z scheme of light reaction
Z diagram of photosystems II and I
 Splitting of Water (Photolysis)
 How does PS II supply electrons
continuously?
 Cyclic and Non-cyclic Photo-phosphorylation
 Living organisms have the capability of extracting energy from oxidizable substances
and store this in the form of bond energy (chemical bonds of ATP).
 The process through which ATP is synthesized by cells (in mitochondria and
chloroplasts) is named Phosphorylation.
 Photophosphorylation is the synthesis of ATP from ADP and inorganic phosphate in
the presence of light. (Non-cyclic photo-phosphorylation and cyclic photo-
phosphorylation).
i. Non-cyclic photophosphorylation:
 It occurs, when the two photosystems work in a series, first PS II and then the
PS I.
 The two photosystems are connected through an electron transport chain, as
seen in the Z scheme.
 Both ATP and NADPH + H+ are synthesized by this kind of electron flow.
Non-cyclic photophosphorylation
Noncyclic electron flow and photophosphorylation
Cyclic Photo-phosphorylation
Cyclic Photo-phosphorylation
Difference between noncyclic and cyclic Photo-phosphorylation
Chemiosmotic Hypothesis
Chemiosmotic Hypothesis
Generation of proton gradient across the membrane
ATP synthesis through Chemiosmosis
ATP synthase complex
Photosynthetic electron transport system and ATP synthesis
Quantum Yield of Photosynthesis
 Experiments that revealed existence of two Photosystems
 Emerson and Lewis suggested a Red Drop effect.
 They performed their experiment on plant chlorella.
 In 1957 Robert Emerson observed Emerson Effect or enhancement effect.
# From red drop and enhancement experiments in photosynthesis light reaction, it
was concluded that two photosystems that function at different wavelengths are
present.