NGUYỄN HUY TRUNG KIÊN

BIOLOGY
CHAPTER 9 SUMMATIVE ESSAY

Biology studies about all life forms on Earth: from the structure, characteristics of growth and
development to the reproduction of organisms. In that, the plants are very carefully studied due to the
important role of providing organic matter for the entire food chain. Have you ever been curious about
how plant makes its own food or how plant creates energy for itself ? So, actually, the plant itself has
many complex activities that not only for maintaining its cell and life processes but also helping other
organisms to maintain their life. And two most important processes that are carried out by them are
"Photosynthesis"- a process of making food and "Cellular Respiration"- a process of producing energy.
These two processes are the main pathways of energy flow in living things and they are dependent on one
another quite a lot .

Photosynthesis is the process of turning light energy into chemical energy. Specifically, it is when
certain green plants and certain other organisms transform light energy into chemical energy. During
photosynthesis in green plants, light energy is captured and used to convert water, carbon dioxide, and
minerals into oxygen and energy-rich organic compounds which is glucose as its food .
Carbon dioxide+ Water+ Light energy-> Glucose + Oxygen.
Or in chemical equation, we will have:
6CO2 + 6H2O [light] -> C6H12O6 +6O2.
Photosynthesis occurs in two phases which are “light-dependent reaction” and “Light–independent
reaction”. In the phase 1, light-absorbing pigments( which are chlorophyll in thylakoid membrane) help
converting light energy into ATP energy. Specifically, when the light energy breaks water, it will create
4H+, 4e- ( high energy electron) and oxygen ( as byproduct). Then the special carrier called” NADP” will
come with ADP and take 2 high energy electron with 2 H+ and then create NADPH and ATP. In phase 2,
ATP formed during light reaction is used to convert carbon dioxide with “H” in NADPH into glucose (
H+ ATP+ CO2-> C6H12O6) and also create NADP+ and ADP. It is important to note that firstly, CO2 is
in the atmosphere and enters the plant through small opening “gate” called stomata, here is also a place
where Oxygen gas is released from plant. Secondly, light energy comes from the sun and is captured by
chloroplasts, inside chloroplast, there are thylakoids( where phase 1 happens) and stroma ( where phase 2
happens). Photosynthesis is necessary to living organisms because it is the number one source of oxygen.
The importance of photosynthesis in our life is the oxygen it produces. Without photosynthesis there
would be little to no oxygen on the planet, oxygen-requiring organisms like human, animals would not
survive and most plants would die . Also, without photosynthesis, the carbon cycle may not be able to
happen. Beside this, green plants and trees use photosynthesis to create their own food from sunlight,
carbon dioxide and water in the atmosphere. This process is their primary source of energy.

Cellular respiration takes place in organisms such as plant, bacteria, animal and fungi. With
cellular respiration, it is the process of using oxygen in mitochondria to chemically break down organic
molecule such as glucose in order to release energy ( ATP) stored in its bond as well as releasing CO2
and H2O .
Glucose+ oxygen-> carbon dioxide+ water
C6H12O6+6O2->6CO2+6H20+ ATP
The main goal of this process is to generate ATP ( usable energy), ATP is very impportant as it is
necessary for all cellular metabolic activities and allow cell to carry out its functions. The cells don’t use
directly the energy from glucose but they have to break it through this process because the energy from
glucose is too big so that they need to break down to ATP. Also, another reason glucose should be broken
down into ATP because some enzymes are similar working with ATP rather than glucose. Cellular
respiration itself is quite different from photosynthesis, while plants are taking in carbon dioxide and
water to make sugar and oxygen, cellular respiration uses the oxygen and sugar to make carbon dioxide,
water and 36 ATP. The three "mini processes" that take place during cellular respiration are glycolysis,
Kreb cycle, and the electron transport chain (ETC). Fermentation also occurs in some cases where there is
no oxygen present. Let have a detail sight in these processes.
1. Glycolysis: provide fast energy, no need of oxygen and happen in cytoplasm. During this step, a
sugar molucule such as glucose is split in halp, generating two molucles of ATP.
2ATP will split glucose molecule. 2NAD+ will come and carry the high energy electron that are
released during the breaking process and become 2NADH. When the splitting/breaking happen, it
realeases energy, 4ADP will come and take the energy and become 4ATP. At the end we have ATP,
NADH and 2 pyruvic acid.
2.Kreb cycle: The Krebs cycle occurs in the mitochondrial matrix and generates a chemical energy
(ATP, NADH, and FADH2) from the oxidation of pyruvate( when 1 carbon in pyruvic acid is
captured by Oxygen to create Carbon dioxide).
The 2 left carbon will then combine with CoA enzyme and form acetyl-CoA. When acetyl-CoA is
oxidized ( combined with oxygen) to form carbon dioxide in the Krebs cycle, chemical energy is
released and captured in the form of NADH, FADH2, and ATP.
3.ETC (electron transport chain): FADH2, NADH will carry high energy electron to the protein
channel. The electron will pump back and forth and go through each protein. This creates the chance
for H+ to go from matrix to another side ( active transport). Sometime, when H+ meets Oxygen, it
will form water. Until the specific point, the H+ from another side will go through the ATP synthase
to go into the matrix, as H+ go through this ATP synthase, it will generate ADP become ATP.
In short, for plants, at the first, the product of photosynthesis such as glucose will be broken down into 2
pyruvic acid, and as it go down in to more stages it will be broken more and more. During that, more ATP
and other substances such as water, carbon dioxide are produced.
 Between these processes, there are many differences between them as they serve for different
purposes as well as working differently. The first difference between them is that cellular respiration
occurs in mitochondria while photosynthesis occurs in chloroplasts. Second difference is photosynthesis
only available with plants and some bacteria because they must have chloroplast to photosynthesize while
cellular respiration is available for every living organisms that contain mitochondria. Third difference is
photosynthesis works by capturing energy to build molecules while cellular respiration works by
breaking molecules to capture energy. The fourth difference is energy that photosynthesis uses is from the
sun but the cellular respiration uses energy that stored in chemical bonds ( sugar, fat,…). The fifth
difference is that cellular respiration breaks down glucose while phototsynthesis forms and build up sugar
such as glucose. The sixth difference is that photosynthesis needs to have the presence of light while
cellular respiration does not need to have light. Photosynthesis uses two electron transport chains, not just
one. Although the have differences, but they also have similarities. First, they both occur in organelles.
They both utilize electron transport chains. They both provide power for cellular activities. They both
utilize ATP for energy.

After wrting, learning, researching and doing the comparison about these two processes, I
strongly believe that photosynthesis is more important than cellular respiration due to the fact that many
things in the process of cellular respiration depends on photosynthesis. For example, in the electron
transport chain, kreb cycle and glycolysis, they depend heavily on glucose which is produced by
photosynthesis. In the first stage- Glycolysis, it begins with breaking glucose to produce 2 pyruvic acids.
From pyruvic acids, it enables 2 other cycles which are kreb cycle and ETC ( electron transport chain) to
continue and happen. Let’s think, if there was no glucose, meaning to say there would be no pyruvic acid
then all three cycles in cellular respiration couldn’t have happened. Another reason why photosynthesis is
important is that after this process, the plants not only produce glucose for itself but also for those animal
which consume plants. According to article on sciencing.com published in July 21, 2017 by Anna
Roberts, it claimed that animals do not manufacture their own food and therefore, animals depend on
plants photosynthesis to acquire glucose needed for their growth. Animals depend on starch and
carbohydrates stored in plant roots, leaves and stems for their living and survival. Let’s take an example
of rabbits, they absorb vitamin ,mineral , fibre and especially, glucose from the plants that they consume.
The next reason is about air regulating:Through this process, the plants would absorb CO2 and release O2
which make our environment become more fresh. Because of that, planting many tree is extremely
important. Moreover, if there is no photosynthesis, there would soon be little food and other organic
matter on Earth. Many organisms would die and the Earth’s atmosphere would become nearly no oxygen.
The only organisms that might be able to exist under such conditions would be the chemosynthetic
bacteria. According to the article on britannica.com published on June 13th, 2019 by Hans Lambers and
James Alan Bassham, it stated that “Energy produced by photosynthesis carried out by plants millions of
years ago is responsible for the fossil fuels (i.e., coal, oil, and gas) that power industrial society”. Through
this, we can clearly see that photosynthesis not only good for plant and human but also have a huge
benefit for industrial society. Finally, photosynthesis is the main source of producing food for most of the
plants on this Earth. If there was no photosynthesis, plants can not make their own food, they will die
soon, meaning to say their would be almost no more oxygen and organic matter and then many living
organisms will die soon.

To conclude my own thought, I would like to say that, both of photosynthesis and cellular
respiration are imporant equally. They all help our life to be better and keep us as well as other living
things alive. But if we consider in some aspect, photosynthesis is kind of more important as it help lots of
things like allow cellular respiration to happen, keep most of living things alive by providing foods and
oxygen as well as helping our industrial society. In the conclusion, photosynthesis is a bit more important
than cellular respiration. And in order to retain the benefit from the photosynthesis that come from plant,
we should care more about our environment as well as care more about plants and trees.