1. 2. 3.

4. 5. 6.
7. 8. 9.
10.

Describe the role of ATP in energy coupling and transfer.

Describe the major features and chemical events in photosynthesis and

respiration.

Explain the important of chloroplast of chlorophyll and other pigments.

Chloroplast – The organelles responsible for photosynthesis.

Chloroplast, structure within the cells of plants and green algae that is the site

of photosynthesis, the process by which light energy is converted to chemical energy,
resulting in the production of oxygen and energy-rich organic compounds.
Photosynthetic cyanobacteria are free-living close relatives of chloroplasts;
endosymbiotic theory posits that chloroplasts and mitochondria (energy-producing
organelles in eukaryotic cells) are descended from such organisms.
Chloroplast, the location of photosynthesis which harness the solar energy, water,
carbon-dioxide and certain nutrients to convert into sugar (food).(plant cell only)

Chlorophyll is a molecule produced by plants, algae and cyanobacteria which aids in

the conversion of light energy into chemical bonds. Chlorophyll is known as a pigment,
or molecule that reflects some wavelengths of light, while absorbing others. Pigments
produce a variety of colours in the plant and animal world. Chlorophyll is a green
pigment, and is responsible for the green colour of plants and algae. In plants, there are
two specific forms of chlorophyll: chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b. Each form of
chlorophyll absorbs slightly different wavelengths of light. As seen in the graph below,
chlorophyll a absorbs dark blue wavelengths and dark red wavelengths. Chlorophyll b
absorbs a light blue wavelength and a reddish-orange wavelength. Plants have both
forms of chlorophyll, which allows them to absorb most blue wavelengths and most red
wavelengths. The large dip in the middle of the graph near the green wavelengths is
due to chlorophyll reflecting, instead of absorbing, green light.

Benefits of Chlorophyll

Because of chlorophyll, all life on Earth is possible. The first benefit of chlorophyll is
sugar, produced through the process of ATP which is driven by chlorophyll. Plants, as
primary producers, produce the basis of the food chain. All other organisms in the food
chain rely on the sugars plants create to sustain life. While the top predators in a food
chain may never eat a single plant, they most certainly eat herbivores. These herbivores
only eat plants, and grow and create muscle by digesting and utilizing plant nutrients.
The accumulation of these nutrients in nature would not be possible without chlorophyll.
The second benefit realized by all organisms is oxygen. While chlorophyll does not
produce oxygen directly, chlorophyll and the complex of proteins it is associated with
transfer electrons to molecules like ATP and NADPH, which can hold energy in bonds.
The need for electrons to drive this process causes water molecules to be split, creating
oxygen. This oxygen is released into the atmosphere. Plants, algae, and cyanobacteria,
produce all of the oxygen in the atmosphere. All other animals, and most plants, need
this oxygen to survive.

There are three basic classes of pigments.

 Chlorophylls are greenish pigments which contain a porphyrin ring. This is a stable ring-
shaped molecule around which electrons are free to migrate. Because the electrons move freely,
the ring has the potential to gain or lose electrons easily, and thus the potential to provide
energized electrons to other molecules. This is the fundamental process by which chlorophyll
"captures" the energy of sunlight.There are several kinds of chlorophyll, the most important
being chlorophyll "a". This is the molecule which makes photosynthesis possible, by passing its
energized electrons on to molecules which will manufacture sugars. All plants, algae, and
cyanobacteria which photosynthesize contain chlorophyll "a". A second kind of chlorophyll is
chlorophyll "b", which occurs only in "green algae" and in the plants. A third form of
chlorophyll which is common is (not surprisingly) called chlorophyll "c", and is found only in
the photosynthetic members of the Chromista as well as the dinoflagellates. The differences
between the chlorophylls of these major groups was one of the first clues that they were not as
closely related as previously thought.
 Carotenoids are usually red, orange, or yellow pigments, and include the familiar compound
carotene, which gives carrots their color. These compounds are composed of two small six-
carbon rings connected by a "chain" of carbon atoms. As a result, they do not dissolve in water,
and must be attached to membranes within the cell. Carotenoids cannot transfer sunlight energy
directly to the photosynthetic pathway, but must pass their absorbed energy to chlorophyll. For
this reason, they are called accessory pigments. One very visible accessory pigment
is fucoxanthin the brown pigment which colors kelps and other brown algae as well as
the diatoms.

 Phycobilins are water-soluble pigments, and are therefore found in the cytoplasm, or in

the stroma of the chloroplast. They occur only in Cyanobacteria and Rhodophyta.The
picture at the right shows the two classes of phycobilins which may be extracted from these
"algae". The vial on the left contains the bluish pigment phycocyanin, which gives the
Cyanobacteria their name. The vial on the right contains the reddish pigment phycoerythrin,
which gives the red algae their common name.Phycobilins are not only useful to the organisms
which use them for soaking up light energy; they have also found use as research tools. Both
pycocyanin and phycoerythrin fluoresce at a particular wavelength. That is, when they are
exposed to strong light, they absorb the light energy, and release it by emitting light of a very
narrow range of wavelengths. The light produced by this fluorescence is so distinctive and
reliable, that phycobilins may be used as chemical "tags". The pigments are chemically bonded
to antibodies, which are then put into a solution of cells. When the solution is sprayed as a stream
of fine droplets past a laser and computer sensor, a machine can identify whether the cells in the
droplets have been "tagged" by the antibodies. This has found extensive use in cancer research,
for "tagging" tumor cells

 Chloroplast – The organelles responsible for photosynthesis.

Describe the pattern of electron flow through light reaction events.

The pathway of electrons

The general features of a widely accepted mechanism for photoelectron transfer, in which
two light reactions (light reaction I and light reaction II) occur during the transfer of electrons
from water to carbon dioxide, were proposed by Robert Hill and Fay Bendall in 1960. This
mechanism is based on the relative potential (in volts) of various cofactors of the electron-
transfer chain to be oxidized or reduced. Molecules that in their oxidized form have the
strongest affinity for electrons (i.e., are strong oxidizing agents) have a low relative potential. In
contrast, molecules that in their oxidized form are difficult to reduce have a high relative
potential once they have accepted electrons. The molecules with a low relative potential are
considered to be strong oxidizing agents, and those with a high relative potential are considered
to be strong reducing agents.
Type equation here .
Flow of electrons during the light reaction stage of photosynthesis Arrows pointing upward represent light
reactions that increase the chemical potential; arrows slanting downward represent flow of electrons via carriers in
the membrane. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

In diagrams that describe the light reaction stage of photosynthesis, the actual photochemical
steps are typically represented by two vertical arrows. These arrows signify that the special
pigments P680 and P700 receive light energy from the light-harvesting chlorophyll-protein
molecules and are raised in energy from their ground state to excited states. In their excited state,
these pigments are extremely strong reducing agents that quickly transfer electrons to the first
acceptor. These first acceptors also are strong reducing agents and rapidly pass electrons to more
stable carriers. In light reaction II, the first acceptor may be pheophytin, which is a molecule
similar to chlorophyllthat also has a strong reducing potential and quickly transfers electrons to
the next acceptor. Special quinones are next in the series. These molecules are similar to
plastoquinone; they receive electrons from pheophytin and pass them to the
intermediate electron carriers, which include the plastoquinone pool and the
cytochromes b and f associated in a complex with an iron-sulfur protein.
In light reaction I, electrons are passed on to iron-sulfur proteins in the lamellar membrane, after
which the electrons flow to ferredoxin, a small water-soluble iron-sulfur protein. When
NADP+ and a suitable enzyme are present, two ferredoxin molecules, carrying one electron each,
transfer two electrons to NADP+, which picks up a proton (i.e., a hydrogen ion) and becomes
NADPH.

Each time a P680 or P700 molecule gives up an electron, it returns to its ground (unexcited) state,
but with a positive charge due to the loss of the electron. These positively charged ions are
extremely strong oxidizing agents that remove an electron from a suitable donor. The P 680+ of
light reaction II is capable of taking electrons from water in the presence of appropriate catalysts.
There is good evidence that two or more manganeseatoms complexed with protein are involved
in this catalysis, taking four electrons from two water molecules (with release of four hydrogen
ions). The manganese-protein complex gives up these electrons one at a time via an unidentified
carrier to P680+, reducing it to P680. When manganese is selectively removed by chemical treatment,
the thylakoids lose the capacity to oxidize water, but all other parts of the electron pathway
remain intact.
In light reaction I, P700+ recovers electrons from plastocyanin, which in turn receives them from
intermediate carriers, including the plastoquinone pool and cytochrome b and cytochrome
molecules. The pool of intermediate carriers may receive electrons from water via light reaction
II and the quinones. Transfer of electrons from water to ferredoxin via the two light reactions and
intermediate carriers is called noncyclic electron flow. Alternatively, electrons may be
transferred only by light reaction I, in which case they are recycled from ferredoxin back to the
intermediate carriers. This process is called cyclic electron flow.

Describe the significant events of Calvin cycle.

The Calvin cycle, light-independent reactions, bio synthetic phase, dark
reactions, or photosynthetic carbon reduction (PCR) cycle [1] of photosynthesis are
the chemical reactions that convert carbon dioxide and other compounds into glucose.
These reactions occur in the stroma, the fluid-filled area of a chloroplast outside
the thylakoid membranes. These reactions take the products (ATP and NADPH) of light-
dependent reactions and perform further chemical processes on them. There are three
phases to the light-independent reactions, collectively called the Calvin cycle: carbon
fixation, reduction reactions, and ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate (RuBP) regeneration. This
process occurs only when light is available. Plants do not carry out the Calvin cycle
during nighttime. They instead release sucrose into the phloem from
their starch reserves to provide energy for the plant. This process happens when light is
available independent of the kind of photosynthesis (C3 carbon fixation, C4 carbon
fixation, and Crassulacean Acid Metabolism (CAM)); CAM plants store malic acid in
their vacuoles every night and release it by day to make this process work.[2]

Calvin Cycle Steps

Carbon Fixation

In carbon fixation, a CO2 molecule from the atmosphere combines with a five-carbon

acceptor molecule called ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate (RuBP).The resulting six-carbon
compound is then split into two molecules of the three-carbon compound, 3-
phosphoglyceric acid (3-PGA).This reaction is catalyzed by the enzyme RuBP
carboxylase/oxygenase, also known as RuBisCO. Due to the key role it plays in
photosynthesis, RuBisCo is probably the most abundant enzyme on Earth.

Reduction

In the second stage of the Calvin cycle, the 3-PGA molecules created through carbon
fixation are converted into molecules of a simple sugar – glyceraldehyde-3 phosphate
(G3P).This stage uses energy from ATP and NADPH created in the light-dependent
reactions of photosynthesis. In this way, the Calvin cycle becomes the way in which
plants convert energy from sunlight into long-term storage molecules, such as sugars.
The energy from the ATP and NADPH is transferred to the sugars.This step is called
“reduction” because NADPH donates electrons to the 3-phosphoglyceric acid molecules
to create glyceraldehyde-3 phosphate. In chemistry, the process of donating electrons
is called “reduction,” while the process of taking electrons is called “oxidation.”
Regeneration

Some glyceraldehyde-3 phosphate molecules go to make glucose, while others must be

recycled to regenerate the five-carbon RuBP compound that is used to accept new
carbon molecules.The regeneration process requires ATP. It is a complex process
involving many steps.Because it takes six carbon molecules to make a glucose, this
cycle must be repeated six times to make a single molecule of glucose.To accomplish
this equation, five out of six glyceraldehyde-3 phosphate molecules that are created
through the Calvin cycle are regenerated to form RuBP molecules. The sixth exits the
cycle to become one half of a glucose

Calvin Cycle Diagram

Differentiate Aerobic from Anaerobic respiration.

Aerobic denotes the term ‘in the presence of oxygen’ while the word anaerobic
denotes the ‘absence of oxygen’. So the respiration which occurs in the presence of
oxygen is called as aerobic respiration, on the other hand, respiration occurring in the
absence of oxygen is known anaerobic respiration.
So accordingly the chemical reaction involving the breakdown of the nutrient molecule
with the aim of producing energy is called respiration. Thus the energy required by the
body to perform well which is produced by the chemical reaction. This process takes
place in the mitochondria or in the cytoplasm of the cell either aerobically or
anaerobically.

Aerobic respiration, a process that uses oxygen, and anaerobic respiration, a process

that doesn't use oxygen, are two forms of cellular respiration. Although some cells may engage
in just one type of respiration, most cells use both types, depending on an organism's needs.
Cellular respiration also occurs outside of macro-organisms, as chemical processes —
for example, in fermentation. In general, respiration is used to eliminate waste products
and generate energy.

Aerobic processes in cellular respiration can only occur if oxygen is present. When a
cell needs to release energy, the cytoplasm (a substance between a cell's nucleus and
its membrane) and mitochondria (organelles in cytoplasm that help with metabolic
processes) initiate chemical exchanges that launch the breakdown of glucose. This
sugar is carried through the blood and stored in the body as a fast source of energy.
The breakdown of glucose into adenosine triphosphate (ATP) releases carbon dioxide
(CO2), a product that needs to be removed from the body. In plants, the energy-
releasing process of photosynthesis uses CO2 and releases oxygen as its product.

Anaerobic processes do not use oxygen, so the pyruvate product — ATP is one kind of

pyruvate — remains in place to be broken down or catalyzed by other reactions, such
as what occurs in muscle tissue or in fermentation. Lactic acid, which builds up in
muscles' cells as aerobic processes fail to keep up with energy demands, is a byproduct
of an anaerobic process. Such anaerobic breakdowns provide additional energy, but
lactic acid build-up reduces a cell's capacity to further process waste; on a large scale
in, say, a human body, this leads to fatigue and muscle soreness. Cells recover by
breathing in more oxygen and through the circulation of blood, processes that help carry
away lactic acid.

Difference between aerobic and anaerobic respiration

Aerobic respiration
*requires oxygen

*occurs in the mitochondria

*produces a lot of ATP per glucose molecule

*used when heart rate and breathing rate

Anaerobic respiration

*occurs in the cytoplasm of cells

*doesn’t require oxygen

*used during the first 1-2 minutes of exercise

*produce less ATP per glucose molecule

Prepared by:
Group VI

Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org,
https://biologydictionary.net/upload/2016/12/Clorophill-ab-specta.jpg, Encyclopædia
Britannica, Inc.,