Understanding photosynthesis involves understanding basic concepts,

light reactions, and the Calvin cycle...

Photosynthesis: Base for the Life on Earth

• Plants use light energy from the sun to convert carbon dioxide and
water into organic molecules.
• Photoautotrophs, or producers of the biosphere, are the ultimate
source of organic molecules for most organisms.
• The diversity among today's photoautotrophs includes plants on land,
algae and some protists, and photosynthetic prokaryotes in aquatic
environments.
• The ability of these organelles to harness light energy is attributed to
the structural organization and interactions of their parts.

Photosynthesis in Chloroplasts in Plant Cells

• Chloroplasts are found in all green parts of a plant, with leaves being
the major sites of photosynthesis.
• Chlorophyll, a light-absorbing pigment in chloroplasts, converts solar
energy to chemical energy.

Photosynthesis Process and Isotopes

• Photosynthesis involves the conversion of light energy into chemical
energy, used in the stroma of the chloroplast to produce sugar.
• Each mesophyll cell has about 30 to 40 chloroplasts, which form the
framework for many reactions.
The structure of a chloroplast...
• The chloroplast contains an envelope of two membranes, an inner
compartment filled with a thick fluid called stroma, and a system of
interconnected membranous sacs called thylakoids.
• The thylakoid membranes house chlorophyll molecules that capture
light energy and convert it to chemical energy.
• The Calvin cycle, a cyclic pathway that produces sugar from CO2, was
elucidated using radioactive C-14 in the mid-1940s.
• The overall process of photosynthesis has been known since the
1800s, but C. B. van Niel challenged this idea in the 1930s.
• Photosynthesis and cellular respiration are opposite reactions, with
reactants in one being products of the other.
• Photosynthesis involves splitting water, transferring electrons to CO2,
reducing it to sugar, and increasing the potential energy of electrons.

Photosynthesis and the Calvin Cycle Overview

Calvin Cycle Overview...
• The Calvin cycle is a series of reactions in chloroplast stroma that
assembles sugar molecules using CO2 and light reactions.
• Carbon fixation involves incorporating carbon from CO2 into organic
compounds, which are then reduced to sugars.
• Light reactions produce NADPH, which provides electrons for
reducing carbon compounds in the Calvin cycle.
• ATP from light reactions provides the chemical energy that powers
several steps of the Calvin cycle.

Photosynthesis: Using Light to Make Food

The Light Reaction...
• Light reactions in the thylakoids convert light energy to chemical
energy and release O2.
• Light energy is used to drive the transfer of electrons from water to
the electron acceptor NADP+, reducing it to NADPH.
• NADPH temporarily stores electrons and provides "reducing power"
to the Calvin cycle.
Photosynthetic Pigments...
• Light-absorbing molecules called pigments absorb some wavelengths
of light and reflect or transmit other wavelengths.
• Different pigments absorb light of different wavelengths, and
chloroplasts contain more than one type of pigment.
• Chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, and carotenoids are pigments that
broaden the spectrum of colors that can drive photosynthesis.

Light Energy and Its Transformation...

• Light energy can be transferred or transformed to other types of
energy.
• Pigment molecules absorb light, causing an electron to jump from a
ground state to an excited state.
• The excited state can be converted back to the ground state,
releasing excess energy as heat.
• Some pigments, like chlorophyll, emit light and heat after absorbing
photons.
• Fluorescence, a reddish afterglow produced by chlorophyll, is a
process where an absorbed photon boosts an electron of chlorophyll to
an excited state, then drops back to the ground state, emitting its
energy as heat and light.
• Chlorophyll molecules are organized into photosystems in the
thylakoid membrane.
• Two types of photosystems, photosystem I and photosystem II,
cooperate in light reactions to generate ATP and NADPH.
• The synthesis of ATP is linked to an electron transport chain pumping
H+ into a membrane compartment, from which the ions flow through
an ATP synthase embedded in the membrane.
• The electrons moving through the photosystems to NADPH originate
from water, which is split into 2 electrons, 2 hydrogen ions (H+), and 1
oxygen atom (1.2 O2).

Understanding Chemiosmosis and Light Reactions in Chlorophyll...

• Chemiosmosis uses the potential energy of a concentration gradient
of H+ across a membrane to power ATP synthesis.
• Light reactions within chloroplast thylakoid membranes produce
NADPH and ATP.

Calvin Cycle: Sugar Synthesis in Chlorophyll

• Functions like a sugar factory within a chloroplast, using CO2, ATP and
NADPH as inputs.
• ATP is used as an energy source, while NADPH provides high-energy
electrons for reducing CO2 to sugar.
• Output is an energy-rich, three-carbon sugar, glyceraldehyde 3-
phosphate (G3P), used to make glucose, the disaccharide sucrose, and
other organic molecules.
• The starting material is a five-carbon sugar named ribulose
bisphosphate (RuBP), which must be regenerated after three cycles.

Carbon Fixation in Hot, Dry Climates

• C3 Plants: Use CO2 directly from the air, reducing water loss and
preventing dehydration.
• C4 Plants: Fix CO2 into a four-carbon compound, conserving water by
keeping stomata mostly closed during hot and dry weather.
• CAM Plants: Conserve water by opening stomata and only admitting
CO2 at night.
C4 Plants and Calvin Cycle
• Carbon fixation and the Calvin cycle occur in different cell types in C4
plants.
• All plants use the Calvin cycle to make sugar from CO2.
• C4 and CAM pathways minimize photorespiration and maximize
photosynthesis in hot, dry climates.
• C4 plants have evolved alternate modes of carbon fixation to
minimize photorespiration and optimize the Calvin cycle in hot, dry
climates.
• They first fix CO2 into a four-carbon compound and keep their
stomata mostly closed to conserve water in hot and dry weather.
• C4 plants use two types of cells: mesophyll cells and bundle-sheath
cells.
• An enzyme in the mesophyll cells has a high affinity for CO2 and can
fix carbon even when the CO2 concentration in the leaf is low.
• The resulting four-carbon compound acts as a CO2 shuttle and moves
into bundle-sheath cells, which release CO2.
• This maintains a high enough concentration of CO2 in the bundle
• sheath cells for the Calvin cycle to make sugars and avoid
photorespiration.
• Corn and sugarcane are examples of agriculturally important C4
plants.

Photosynthesis: From Photons to Food

• Photosynthesis is a process where light reactions occur in thylakoid
membranes, capturing solar energy and energizing electrons in
chlorophyll molecules.
• About 50% of the carbohydrates made by photosynthesis are
consumed as fuel for cellular respiration in plant cells.
• Sugars also serve as starting material for making other organic
molecules, such as a plant’s proteins and lipids.
• Plants and other photosynthesizers provide food and O2 for almost all
living organisms and store the excess as starch.