QUARTER 2

GENERAL BIOLOGY 1 – WEEK 1 & 2

WHAT’S MORE
1. How do plants cope with the change in season? Give a detailed description and explanation.
ANSWER: Plants cope with the change in season by responding to the change in season by losing
their leaves, flowering, or breaking dormancy.
2. How do plants capture the sun’s energy?
ANSWER: Pigments are the means by which plants capture sun’s energy to be used in
photosynthesis. However, since each pigment absorbs only a narrow range of wavelength, there is
usually a need to produce several kinds of pigments of different colors to capture more of sun’s
energy.
3. What happens to light when it hits an object?
ANSWER: Light, as it encounters an object, is either reflected, transmitted, or absorbed.
WHAT I HAVE LEARNED
1. What wavelength of light is most important to life on earth?
ANSWER: Visible light with a wavelength of 380-750nm is the segment in the entire range of
electromagnetic spectrum that is most important to life on earth.
2. What color/s of light does chlorophyll absorb? What color does it reflect?
ANSWER: Chlorophyll absorbs blue and red light while it transmits and reflects green light.
3. What composes a photosystem?
ANSWER: Photosystem is composed of light-harvesting complex and reaction center complex.
• Light-harvesting complex— is also called the ‘antenna’ complex and is consisted of several
different pigments (chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, and carotenoids) bounded with proteins. When a
pigment molecule absorbs a photon, energy is passed on from one pigment molecule to another
pigment molecule until the energy reaches the reaction center.
• Reaction-center complex—is composed of a pair of chlorophyll a and a primary electron
acceptor. The primary electron acceptor is a specialized molecule that is able to accept electrons from
the pair of chlorophyll a. The pair of chlorophyll a in the reaction-center is also specialized because they
are capable of transferring an electron to the primary electron acceptor and not just boosting the
electron to a higher energy level.
4. In what part of the photosystem does the first step of light reaction take place?
ANSWER: Photosystem II of the thylakoid membrane.
5. Differentiate the two types of photosystem?
ANSWER: Photosystem I—was discovered first. Its reaction-center has a chlorophyll a called P700
because it is effective in absorbing light with a wavelength of 700nm, whereas Photosystem II—was
discovered later after the discovery of Photosystem I, but functions first in the light reaction of
photosynthesis. The chlorophyll a in the reaction-center of Photosystem II effectively absorbs light
with a wavelength of 680nm and thus called P680.