GROUP 8: LIGHT DEPENDENT REACTION

NAME: Princess Fionnah Medina SECTION: 11 STEM Curie

Light-dependent reactions refers to certain photochemical reactions that are involved

in photosynthesis, the main process by which plants acquire energy. There are two light
dependent reactions, the first occurs at photosystem II (PSII) and the second occurs at
photosystem I (PSI).

Light-dependent
reactions of photosynthesis at the thylakoid membrane
PSII absorbs a photon to produce a so-called high energy electron which transfers via
an electron transport chain to cytochrome b6f and then to PSI. The then-reduced PSI,
absorbs another photon producing a more highly reducing electron, which converts
NADP+ to NADPH. In oxygenic photosynthesis, the first electron donor is water,
creating oxygen (O2) as a by-product. In anoxygenic photosynthesisvarious electron donors
are used. Cytochrome b6f and ATP synthase work together to produce ATP
(photophosphorylation) in two distinct ways. In non-cyclic photophosphorylation,
cytochrome b6f uses electrons from PSII and energy from PSI[citation needed] to
pump protons from the stroma to the lumen. The resulting proton gradient across the
thylakoid membrane creates a proton-motive force, used by ATP synthase to form ATP.
In cyclic photophosphorylation, cytochrome b6f uses electrons and energy from PSI to
create more ATP and to stop the production of NADPH. Cyclic phosphorylation is
important to create ATP and maintain NADPH in the right proportion for the light-
independent reactions.
The net-reaction of all light-dependent reactions in oxygenic photosynthesis is:

2H
2O + 2NADP
+

+ 3ADP + 3Pi → O
2 + 2 H + 2NADPH + 3ATP
+

PSI and PSII are light-harvesting complexes. If a special pigment molecule in a

photosynthetic reaction center absorbs a photon, an electronin this pigment attains
the excited state and then is transferred to another molecule in the reaction center. This
reaction, called photoinduced charge separation, is the start of the electron flow and
transforms light energy into chemical forms.