During photosynthesis many reactions
take place but the overall process can be
summarized by a chemical equation
which states that the combination of
carbon dioxide water and light energy
produces a glucose and oxygen.
Photosynthesis consists of two stages:
The light dependent reactions which
take
place in the thylakoids and the light.
Independent reactions known as the
Calvin cycle which takes place in the
stroma.
The light reactions convert solar energy
to chemical energy
and this is made possible by the two
photosystems that are located in the
thylakoid
membrane of the chloroplast the two
photosystems are named in the order of
that discovery photosystem two is the
first like capturing complex and
photosystem one is the second like
capturing complex each photo system
consists of a light harvesting complex
which is made up of a group of pigment
molecules surrounding a reaction
center.
Complex the reaction center complex
consists of an electron acceptor next to
a special pair of chlorophyll molecules
when light strikes one of the
chlorophyll pigment molecules in the
light harvesting complex it excites an
election to a higher energy state that
electron then drops back to its initial
state which releases energy exciting an
electron in the next chlorophyll thus the
series of pigment molecules in the light
harvesting complex creates a pathway
to the reaction center complex the pair
of chlorophyll molecules found
in the reaction center complex of
photosystem 2 unknowns as P 680
because these molecules are best at
absorbing light at a wavelength of 680
nanometers
when the energy beam we laid in the
harvesting complex reaches that P 600
and 80 pair of chlorophyll molecules it
excites an electron to a higher energy
state this electron is transferred to
the primary electron acceptor resulting
in a positively charged P 680 denoted as
P 680 plus an enzyme catalyzes the
splitting of water into two electrons two
hydrogen ions and an oxygen atom the
electrons from this reaction are
transferred to P 680 returning P 680 to
its initial state the oxygen atom
combines with another oxygen atom to
make oxygen air and the hydrogen ions
are released into the thylakoid lumen
where they create a proton gradient that
will be used to form ATP by the process
of chemiosmosis in photosystem 1 a
process similar to that in photosystem ii
captures light energy and transfers it to
a primary electron acceptor the
reaction center chlorophyll molecules in
photosystem 1 are referred to as P 700
because they most effectively absorb
light having a wavelength of 700
nanometers light energy is transferred to
the reaction center exciting an electron
in the P 700 pair of chlorophyll
molecules which gets passed
on to the primary electron acceptor P
700 is now referred to as P 700 plus and
it can accept electrons that come from
photosystem 2 the excited electrons
from the primary electron acceptor of
photosystem 1 are then passed in a
series of redox reactions to NADP+
which also takes hydrogen ions from
the stroma
to make NADPH NADPH will be used
later in the Calvin cycle earlier we
learned that the water splitting reaction
that takes place in photosystem 2 results
in
the pumping of protons to the thylakoid
lumen this then results in the production
of ATP by chemiosmosis.
Chemiosmosis is the movement of
charged particles protons in this case produce a single molecule of glucose
across a semipermeable membrane the final step is a regeneration of RuBP
down the electrochemical gradient this from the five molecules of G3P in the
chemical potential is used previous step remembers that neither
by the enzyme ATP synthase found in the light reactions all the Calvin cycle
the thylakoid membrane to generate alone can make sugar from carbon
ATP from dioxide both stages are required for
ADP hydrogen ions diffuse down the photosynthesis.
concentration gradient and this is
coupled by ATP synthase to the
phosphorylation of ADP resulting in
ATP synthesis
so to summarize the light reaction to
solar power to generate ATP and
NADPH we're now ready to look at the
light
independent reactions of photosynthesis
the Calvin cycle which utilizes ATP and
NADPH from the first stage to convert
carbon dioxide to sugar Calvin cycle
takes place in the stroma the fluid inside
the chloroplast and can be divided into
three main steps the first episode is
carbon fixation because it
takes in carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere and fixes it into organic
molecules in this step the enzyme.
Rinna's Rubisco adds one carbon to a
five carbon sugar called ribose
bisphosphate or RuBP during carbon
fixation this one's a six carbon sugar
that is unstable and immediately splits
into two three carbon molecules called
3-phosphoglycerate or 3-pga in the
second step a series of reduction
reactions utilizing ATP and NADPH
from the light reaction results in
glyceraldehyde 3 phosphate or g3p a
precursor to glucose importantly for
every 3 molecules of carbon dioxide
that enter the cycle 6 molecules of g3p
are
formed five of these g3p molecules will
be recycled into RuBP in the next step
only one molecule leaves the cycle
resulting in a net production of one g3p
for every turn of the cycle so it takes six
turns to