Photosynthesis

Ch 3 plant physiology and ecology

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Outline
Photosynthesis
Introduction
Oxygenic and non- oxygenic photosynthesis
Mechanism: light reaction and dark reaction
Difference between C3 and C4 plants
Factors affecting this process
Products of photosynthesis

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• Definition
• The process in which plants make glucose and oxygen from water and carbon
dioxide using chlorophyll to convert light energy into chemical energy
• Chemical reaction
• Water + Carbon dioxide Glucose + Oxygen
• 6CO2 + 6H2O + sunlight  C6H12O6 + 6O2

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• Location: chloroplast

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• Process of photosynthesis: Light Reaction
• Breakage of water molecule called photolysis of water
• Non-cyclic Electron transport chain
• Reduction of NADP+ to NADPH
• Synthesis of ATP

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1 2 3
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6

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• Dark Reaction
• Fixation of carbon dioxide with RuBP using rubisco enzme.
• Reduction of carbon dioxide using energy from ATP and NADPH
• Regeneration of RuBP utilizing ATP
• Extracting sucrose

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• Cyclic electron transport chain
• Light falls on photosystem I (PSI) and releases an
electron from it. Electron is absorbed by
ferrodoxin (fd), cytochrome bf complex,
plastocyanin (PC) and finally back to PSI.
• This process pumps H ions out which can be
utilized to synthesize ATP from ADP.

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• Role of light
• light is made from smaller packets of energy
called photons, which travels as waves from
wavelength 390nm to 730nm.
• Violet (390nm), Indigo, blue, green, yellow,
orange and red (730nm). VIBGYOR.
• Each photon can be absorbed by an electron of
chlorophyll molecule. Which is excited and
leaves the parent atom (molecule).

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• PHOTOSYNTHETIC PIGMENTS:
• Primary pigments (chlorophylls)
• Chlorophyll a
• Chlorophyll b
• Secondary pigments
(carotenoids)
• Beta carotene
• xanthophyll
• Photosynthetic pigments
occurs in the thylakoid
membranes.
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• Action spectrum and absorption
spectrum.
• Maximum absorption of chlorphyll
is at blue and red light.
• While maximum rate of
photosynthesis is at the same light
wavelength as well.

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PHOTORESPIRATION
• Process
• With the help of rubisco (enzyme) Oxygen combines with RuBP, releasing
Carbon dioxide
• Loss
• The recently fixed carbon dioxide by photosynthesis is lost.
• Reason
• Rubisco can fix both oxygen and carbon dioxide depending upon the
concentration
• Way to counter
• C4 plants and CAM plants.

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C4 PLANTS

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C4 PLANTS

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SYNTHESIS OF STARCH AND SUCROSE
• In most species, sucrose is the principal form of carbohydrate
translocated throughout the plant by the phloem.
• Starch is an insoluble stable carbohydrate reserve that is present in
almost all plants.
• Both starch and sucrose are synthesized from the triose phosphate
that is generated by the Calvin cycle

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• Starch Is Synthesized in the Chloroplast
• Electron micrographs showing prominent starch deposits, as well as enzyme localization
studies, leave no doubt that the chloroplast is the site of starch synthesis in leaves (Figure
8.15).
• Starch is synthesized from triose phosphate via fructose-1,6-bisphosphate.
• The glucose-1-phosphate intermediate is converted to ADP-glucose via ADP-glucose
pyrophosphorylase in a reaction that requires ATP and generates pyrophosphate (PPi, or
H2P2O72–).
• As in many biosynthetic reactions, the pyrophosphate is hydrolyzed via a specific inorganic
pyrophosphatase to two orthophosphate (Pi) molecules, thereby driving reaction 5 toward
ADP-glucose synthesis.
• Finally, the glucose moiety of ADP-glucose is transferred to the non-reducing end (carbon 4)
of the terminal glucose of a growing starch chain, thus completing the reaction sequence.

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• Sucrose Is Synthesized in the Cytosol
• The site of sucrose synthesis has been studied by cell fractionation, in which
the organelles are isolated and separated from one another.
• Enzyme analyses have shown that sucrose is synthesized in the cytosol from
triose phosphates

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Factors affecting photosynthesis
• Light intensity
• Without enough light, a plant cannot photosynthesise very quickly - even if there is plenty of
water and carbon dioxide. Increasing the light intensity will boost the rate of photosynthesis.
• Carbon dioxide concentration
• Even if there is plenty of light, a plant cannot photosynthesise if there is insufficient carbon
dioxide.
• Temperature
• If it gets too cold, the rate of photosynthesis will decrease. Plants cannot photosynthesise if it
gets too hot.
• If you plot the rate of photosynthesis against the levels of these three limiting factors, you get
graphs like the ones shown above.
• In practice, any one of these factors could limit the rate of photosynthesis.

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Oxygenic Photosynthesis Anoxygenic Photosynthesis
Difference Between Oxygenic and Anoxygenic Photosynthesis
occurs in plants, algae, and cyanobacteria in which the used by certain bacteria, in which oxygen is not
final electron acceptor is water. produced.
Oxygenic photosynthesis occurs in plants, algae, and Anoxygenic photosynthesis occurs in the green sulfur
cyanobacteria and nonsulfur bacteria, purple bacteria, heliobacteria
and acidobacteria.
Both photosystem I and II are used in the oxygenic Only photosystem I is used in the anoxygenic
photosynthesis photosynthesis.
H2O is the electron source of the oxygenic Hydrogen, hydrogen sulfide or ferrous ions serves as
photosynthesis. the electron donor in anoxygenic photosynthesis
Oxygen is produced during the light reaction in Oxygen is not produced during the light reaction in
oxygenic photosynthesis. anoxygenic photosynthesis
Chlorophylls are used in the oxygenic photosynthesis. Bacteriochlorophylls or chlorophylls are used in
anoxygenic photosynthesis.
NADP serves as the terminal electron acceptor, NADPH is not produced in anoxygenic photosynthesis
producing NADPH in oxygenic photosynthesis. as the electrons are cycled back to the system.
ATP is produced by noncyclic photophosphorylation in ATP is produced by cyclic photophosphorylation in
oxygenic photosynthesis. anoxygenic photosynthesis

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