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Where does photosynthesis take place in plants?
What is photosynthesis based on?
How does photosynthesis take place in eukaryotes?
What happens during photosynthesis in a plant cell?
Photosynthesis is the process of converting light energy into carbon-based molecules by cells that contain chlorophyll, a green pigment. Photosynthesis takes place in chloroplasts, organelles found in green plants, and other photosynthetic cells, such as phytoplankton and cyanobacteria.
Mar 20, 2024 · Photosynthesis is the process by which plants use sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to create oxygen and energy in the form of sugar. Learn about the stages, types, and benefits of photosynthesis, and how it relates to life on Earth.
- Overview
- Development of the idea
- Overall reaction of photosynthesis
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Photosynthesis is critical for the existence of the vast majority of life on Earth. It is the way in which virtually all energy in the biosphere becomes available to living things. As primary producers, photosynthetic organisms form the base of Earth’s food webs and are consumed directly or indirectly by all higher life-forms. Additionally, almost all the oxygen in the atmosphere is due to the process of photosynthesis. If photosynthesis ceased, there would soon be little food or other organic matter on Earth, most organisms would disappear, and Earth’s atmosphere would eventually become nearly devoid of gaseous oxygen.
What is the basic formula for photosynthesis?
The process of photosynthesis is commonly written as: 6CO2 + 6H2O → C6H12O6 + 6O2. This means that the reactants, six carbon dioxide molecules and six water molecules, are converted by light energy captured by chlorophyll (implied by the arrow) into a sugar molecule and six oxygen molecules, the products. The sugar is used by the organism, and the oxygen is released as a by-product.
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The study of photosynthesis began in 1771 with observations made by the English clergyman and scientist Joseph Priestley. Priestley had burned a candle in a closed container until the air within the container could no longer support combustion. He then placed a sprig of mint plant in the container and discovered that after several days the mint had produced some substance (later recognized as oxygen) that enabled the confined air to again support combustion. In 1779 the Dutch physician Jan Ingenhousz expanded upon Priestley’s work, showing that the plant had to be exposed to light if the combustible substance (i.e., oxygen) was to be restored. He also demonstrated that this process required the presence of the green tissues of the plant.
In 1782 it was demonstrated that the combustion-supporting gas (oxygen) was formed at the expense of another gas, or “fixed air,” which had been identified the year before as carbon dioxide. Gas-exchange experiments in 1804 showed that the gain in weight of a plant grown in a carefully weighed pot resulted from the uptake of carbon, which came entirely from absorbed carbon dioxide, and water taken up by plant roots; the balance is oxygen, released back to the atmosphere. Almost half a century passed before the concept of chemical energy had developed sufficiently to permit the discovery (in 1845) that light energy from the sun is stored as chemical energy in products formed during photosynthesis.
In chemical terms, photosynthesis is a light-energized oxidation–reduction process. (Oxidation refers to the removal of electrons from a molecule; reduction refers to the gain of electrons by a molecule.) In plant photosynthesis, the energy of light is used to drive the oxidation of water (H2O), producing oxygen gas (O2), hydrogen ions (H+), and electrons. Most of the removed electrons and hydrogen ions ultimately are transferred to carbon dioxide (CO2), which is reduced to organic products. Other electrons and hydrogen ions are used to reduce nitrate and sulfate to amino and sulfhydryl groups in amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins. In most green cells, carbohydrates—especially starch and the sugar sucrose—are the major direct organic products of photosynthesis. The overall reaction in which carbohydrates—represented by the general formula (CH2O)—are formed during plant photosynthesis can be indicated by the following equation:
This equation is merely a summary statement, for the process of photosynthesis actually involves numerous reactions catalyzed by enzymes (organic catalysts). These reactions occur in two stages: the “light” stage, consisting of photochemical (i.e., light-capturing) reactions; and the “dark” stage, comprising chemical reactions controlled by enzymes. During the first stage, the energy of light is absorbed and used to drive a series of electron transfers, resulting in the synthesis of ATP and the electron-donor-reduced nicotine adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH). During the dark stage, the ATP and NADPH formed in the light-capturing reactions are used to reduce carbon dioxide to organic carbon compounds. This assimilation of inorganic carbon into organic compounds is called carbon fixation.
During the 20th century, comparisons between photosynthetic processes in green plants and in certain photosynthetic sulfur bacteria provided important information about the photosynthetic mechanism. Sulfur bacteria use hydrogen sulfide (H2S) as a source of hydrogen atoms and produce sulfur instead of oxygen during photosynthesis. The overall reaction is
In the 1930s Dutch biologist Cornelis van Niel recognized that the utilization of carbon dioxide to form organic compounds was similar in the two types of photosynthetic organisms. Suggesting that differences existed in the light-dependent stage and in the nature of the compounds used as a source of hydrogen atoms, he proposed that hydrogen was transferred from hydrogen sulfide (in bacteria) or water (in green plants) to an unknown acceptor (called A), which was reduced to H2A. During the dark reactions, which are similar in both bacteria and green plants, the reduced acceptor (H2A) reacted with carbon dioxide (CO2) to form carbohydrate (CH2O) and to oxidize the unknown acceptor to A. This putative reaction can be represented as:
Van Niel’s proposal was important because the popular (but incorrect) theory had been that oxygen was removed from carbon dioxide (rather than hydrogen from water, releasing oxygen) and that carbon then combined with water to form carbohydrate (rather than the hydrogen from water combining with CO2 to form CH2O).
By 1940 chemists were using heavy isotopes to follow the reactions of photosynthesis. Water marked with an isotope of oxygen (18O) was used in early experiments. Plants that photosynthesized in the presence of water containing H218O produced oxygen gas containing 18O; those that photosynthesized in the presence of normal water produced normal oxygen gas. These results provided definitive support for van Niel’s theory that the oxygen gas produced during photosynthesis is derived from water.
Photosynthesis is the process by which green plants and certain other organisms transform light energy into chemical energy. Learn about the definition, formula, process, diagram, reactants, products, and facts of photosynthesis from Britannica.
Jul 17, 2016 · Photosynthesis is the process of converting light energy to chemical energy in the form of sugars. It mainly takes place in the leaves of plants, where chloroplasts contain pigments that absorb light and perform the reactions of photosynthesis.
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In plants and algae, photosynthesis takes place in organelles called chloroplasts. A typical plant cell contains about 10 to 100 chloroplasts. The chloroplast is enclosed by a membrane. This membrane is composed of a phospholipid inner membrane, a phospholipid outer membrane, and an intermembrane space.
Photosynthesis is essential to all life on earth; both plants and animals depend on it. It is the only biological process that can capture energy that originates in outer space (sunlight) and convert it into chemical compounds (carbohydrates) that every organism uses to power its metabolism.
Sep 21, 2021 · Each cell runs on the chemical energy found mainly in carbohydrate molecules (food), and the majority of these molecules are produced by one process: photosynthesis. Through photosynthesis, certain organisms convert solar energy (sunlight) into chemical energy, which is then used to build carbohydrate molecules.
