Most of the energy that reaches Earths surface is in the form of visible light: this is the energy that

drives photosynthesis (how plants make their own food) Plants use the energy of sunlight to assemble glucose from carbon dioxide and water Visible light is a very small part of a large spectrum of electromagnetic energy radiating from the sun Light travels in waves, moving through space like waves moving across an ocean The distance between the crests of two successive waves is the lights wavelength which is measured in nanometers (nm) Humans and many other organisms see certain wavelengths of light in the range of 380 to 750 nanometers as different colors Light travels in waves, but it is also organized in packets of energy called photons Photons that carry the least energy travel in longer wavelengths: those that carry the most energy travel in shorter wavelengths Different wavelengths are visible to us as different colors. Light is organized as packets of energy called photons: the shorter a photons wavelength, the greater its energy Photosynthetic species (such as plants, some protista and archaea, and many bacteria) use pigments to capture energy for photosynthesis A pigment is an organic molecule that selectively absorbs light at specific wavelengths: wavelengths of light that are not absorbed by a pigment are reflected, and that reflected light gives a pigment its color Chlorophyll a is the most common photosynthetic pigment in plants, protista, and bacteria: It reflects green light (and absorbs other types of light), so it appears green to us Accessory pigmMost photosynthetic organisms use a combination of pigments for photosynthesis: The more abundant chlorophyll pigments in plants mask the colors of accessory pigments, so leaves usually appear green Green leaves change during the fall because they stop making pigments: the plant shuts down certain cellular functions for the dormant winter seasonents, including other chlorophylls, reflect additional colorChlorophyll breaks down faster than other pigments, so the leaves turn red, orange, yellow, or purple as their chlorophyll content declines and the accessory pigments show through before the leaves die and fall offs of light Photosynthesis converts the energy of light into the energy of chemical bonds, which can power the reactions of life and be stored for later use.In plants, photosynthesis occurs in certain types of cells: Chloroplasts: organelles specialized for photosynthesis that have two outer membranes and are filled with a semifluid substance called stroma In the stroma are the chloroplasts DNA, some ribosomes, and a third folded thylakoid membrane: The folds of a thylakoid membrane form stacks of interconnected disks called thylakoids Many clusters of light-harvesting pigments (complexes) are embedded in a thylakoid membrane, which absorb photons of different energies Photosystems are groups of hundreds of pigments and other molecules in thylakoid membranes that work as a unit to begin the reactions of photosynthesis 6CO2 + 6H2O (light energy) C6 H12O6 + 6O2

This equation means that photosynthesis converts carbon dioxide and water (reactants with less energy) to glucose and oxygen (products with more energy)

PThe first stage occurs at the thylakoid membrane in chloroplasts, and is driven by light (the reactions of this stage are called light-dependent reactions) These reactions convert the energy of light to the energy of ATPhotosynthesis is a metabolic pathway: a series of many reactions that occur in two stages

Water molecules are broken apart into oxygen and hydrogen ions Hydrogen ions stay in the chloroplast and participate in the process of ATP formation, and the oxygen atoms leave the cell as oxygen gas (O2)

The coenzyme NADP+ (an organic molecule that aids enzyme function) accepts electrons and hydrogen ions When NADP+ is carrying electrons and hydrogen, we refer to it as NADPH The reactions begin when chlorophylls and other pigments in a thylakoid membrane absorb a photon (light energy), and the photons energy boosts one of the pigments electrons to a higher energy level (an outer shell) The electron quickly emits the extra energy and drops back to its unexcited state The pigments in the membrane hold onto this energy Reactions begin when this energy is captured by a light-harvesting complex and is passed to a photosystem: 1. 2. 3. At the center of each photosystem is a pair of chlorophyll a molecules that release electrons when th The photosystem pulls replacement electrons from water molecules, which causes the water molecules to break apart into hydrogen ions and oxygen, and the oxygen diffuses out of the cell as O2 gasey absorb energy 2. The photosystem pulls replacement electrons from water molecules, which causes the water molecules to break apart into hydrogen ions and oxygen, and the oxygen diffuses out of the cell as O2 gas Electron transfer chains can harvest the energy given off by an electron as it drops to a lower energy level In a series of reactions, electrons pass from one molecule of the chain to the next, releasing a bit of energy at each step The molecules use this released energy to move hydrogen ions across the membrane from the stroma to the thylakoid compartment The flow of electrons through electron transfer chains sets up and maintains an hydrogen (H+) ion gradient across the thylakoid membrane ions tend to move down their concentration gradient from a region of higher concentration to a region of lower concentration: the more crowded or concentrated they are, the more often they collide and more of them get knocked out of a region of higher concentration than get knocked into it 5. After the electrons have moved through the first electron transfer chain, they are accepted by another lightharvesting complex and passed to another photosystem This photosystem also absorbs light energy, which causes the chlorophyll a molecules to release 6. The electrons enter a second electron transfer chain: at the end of this chain, the coenzyme NADP+ accepts the electrons along with hydrogen ions and forms NADPH electrons 7. The hydrogen ion gradient motivates hydrogen ions in the thylakoid compartment to move back into the stroma: Since ions cannot diffuse on their own through the lipid bilayer of the membrane, the ions flow through membrane transport proteins called ATP synthases The process by which the flow of electrons through electron transfer chains drives ATP formation is called electron transfer phosphorylation

ATP and NADPH continue to form as long as electrons continue to flow through transfer chains in the thylakoid membrane: electrons flow through the chains as long as water and oxygen are plentiful When water and oxygen are scarce, the flow of electrons slows and so does ATP and NADPH production

The reactions of the second stage of photosynthesis run in the stroma and are called the light-independent reactions because light does not power them They run on energy delivered by molecules that formed in the first stage: ATP and NADPH Glucose is synthesized from carbon dioxide and water These reactions (also called the Calvin-Benson cycle) form a cyclic metabolic pathway in which the product of the last reaction is the starting material of the first reaction Carbon fixation is a process by which carbon from an inorganic source such as CO2 becomes incorporated into an organic molecule In the stroma of chloroplasts, the enzyme rubisco fixes carbon: Rubisco attaches a molecule of CO2 to a molecule of ribulose bisphosphate (RuBP) The molecule that forms splits into two 3-carbon intermediate molecules called PGA that continue in the cycle It takes six cycles of Calvin-Benson reactions to fix the six carbon atoms necessary to make one glucose molecule Plants use the glucose they make in the light-independent reactions as building blocks for other organic molecules or they break it down to access the energy in its bonds Most of the glucose is converted to sucrose or starch by other pathways Excess glucose is stored as starch grains in the stroma of the chloroplast