Transcript Photosynthesis

Plants and other autotrophs are producers
• Autotrophs (producers) produce organic molecules
from CO2 and other inorganic raw materials obtained
from the environment.
• Can be categorized by source of energy that drives
their metabolism.
• Photoautotrophs use light.
• Photosynthesis occurs in plants, algae & some other
protists, and some prokaryotes.
• Chemoautotrophs (occurs in some bacteria) get energy
from oxidizing inorganic substances, including sulfur and
ammonia.
• Heterotrophs (consumers) live on organic
compounds produced by other organisms.
• Herbivores  plants only
• Carnivores  animals only
• Omnivores  plants & animals
• Detritivores  feed on dead organisms and organic
litter, like feces and fallen leaves
• Decomposers break down dead organisms / absorb
nutrients
• Almost all heterotrophs are completely dependent
on photoautotrophs for food and oxygen.
Chloroplasts = sites of photosynthesis in
plants
• Any green part of a plant has chloroplasts.
• Leaves = major site of photosynthesis for most
plants.
• About half a million chloroplasts per square mm of leaf.
• Color of a leaf comes from chlorophyll, the green
pigment in the chloroplasts.
• Chlorophyll absorbs light energy (usually sunlight) during
photosynthesis.
O2 exits and CO2
enters the leaf
through microscopic
pores, stomata, in
the leaf.
• Veins (xylem)
deliver water
from the roots and
carry off sugar from
mesophyll cells to
other plant areas
(phloem).
• A typical mesophyll
cell (where
photosynthesis takes
place) has 30-40
chloroplasts. Each
chloroplast has two
membranes around a
central watery space,
the stroma.
• In the stroma are
membranous sacs,
the thylakoids that
may be stacked into
columns called grana.
Fig. 10.2
Photosynthesis Equation
• Using glucose as our target product,
the equation describing the net
(overall) process of photosynthesis
is:
• 6CO2 + 6H2O + light energy ->
C6H12O6 + 6O2
Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
The light reactions and the Calvin cycle
cooperate in converting light energy to
chemical energy of food: an overview
• Photosynthesis is two processes, each with multiple
stages.
• Light reactions: solar energy  chemical energy.
• Occur in thylakoids
• Calvin cycle: incorporates CO2 from the atmosphere
into an organic molecule; uses energy from the light
reaction to reduce the new carbon piece to sugar.
• Occurs in stroma