Describe The Role of ATP in Energy Coupling and Transfer.: Chloroplast
Describe The Role of ATP in Energy Coupling and Transfer.: Chloroplast
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Chloroplast, structure within the cells of plants and green algae that is the site
of photosynthesis, the process by which light energy is converted to chemical energy,
resulting in the production of oxygen and energy-rich organic compounds.
Photosynthetic cyanobacteria are free-living close relatives of chloroplasts;
endosymbiotic theory posits that chloroplasts and mitochondria (energy-producing
organelles in eukaryotic cells) are descended from such organisms.
Chloroplast, the location of photosynthesis which harness the solar energy, water,
carbon-dioxide and certain nutrients to convert into sugar (food).(plant cell only)
Chlorophyll is a molecule produced by plants, algae and cyanobacteria which aids in the
conversion of light energy into chemical bonds. Chlorophyll is known as a pigment, or
molecule that reflects some wavelengths of light, while absorbing others. Pigments
produce a variety of colours in the plant and animal world. Chlorophyll is a green pigment,
and is responsible for the green colour of plants and algae. In plants, there are two specific
forms of chlorophyll: chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b. Each form of chlorophyll absorbs
slightly different wavelengths of light. As seen in the graph below, chlorophyll a absorbs
dark blue wavelengths and dark red wavelengths. Chlorophyll b absorbs a light blue
wavelength and a reddish-orange wavelength. Plants have both forms of chlorophyll,
which allows them to absorb most blue wavelengths and most red wavelengths. The large
dip in the middle of the graph near the green wavelengths is due to chlorophyll reflecting,
instead of absorbing, green light.
Benefits of Chlorophyll
Because of chlorophyll, all life on Earth is possible. The first benefit of chlorophyll is sugar,
produced through the process of ATP which is driven by chlorophyll. Plants, as primary
producers, produce the basis of the food chain. All other organisms in the food chain rely
on the sugars plants create to sustain life. While the top predators in a food chain may
never eat a single plant, they most certainly eat herbivores. These herbivores only eat
plants, and grow and create muscle by digesting and utilizing plant nutrients. The
accumulation of these nutrients in nature would not be possible without chlorophyll. The
second benefit realized by all organisms is oxygen. While chlorophyll does not produce
oxygen directly, chlorophyll and the complex of proteins it is associated with transfer
electrons to molecules like ATP and NADPH, which can hold energy in bonds. The need
for electrons to drive this process causes water molecules to be split, creating oxygen.
This oxygen is released into the atmosphere. Plants, algae, and cyanobacteria, produce
all of the oxygen in the atmosphere. All other animals, and most plants, need this oxygen
to survive.
Chlorophylls are greenish pigments which contain a porphyrin ring. This is a stable ring-
shaped molecule around which electrons are free to migrate. Because the electrons move freely,
the ring has the potential to gain or lose electrons easily, and thus the potential to provide energized
electrons to other molecules. This is the fundamental process by which chlorophyll "captures" the
energy of sunlight.There are several kinds of chlorophyll, the most important being chlorophyll
"a". This is the molecule which makes photosynthesis possible, by passing its energized electrons
on to molecules which will manufacture sugars. All plants, algae, and cyanobacteria which
photosynthesize contain chlorophyll "a". A second kind of chlorophyll is chlorophyll "b", which
occurs only in "green algae" and in the plants. A third form of chlorophyll which is common is
(not surprisingly) called chlorophyll "c", and is found only in the photosynthetic members of
the Chromista as well as the dinoflagellates. The differences between the chlorophylls of these
major groups was one of the first clues that they were not as closely related as previously thought.
Carotenoids are usually red, orange, or yellow pigments, and include the familiar compound
carotene, which gives carrots their color. These compounds are composed of two small six-carbon
rings connected by a "chain" of carbon atoms. As a result, they do not dissolve in water, and must
be attached to membranes within the cell. Carotenoids cannot transfer sunlight energy directly to
the photosynthetic pathway, but must pass their absorbed energy to chlorophyll. For this reason,
they are called accessory pigments. One very visible accessory pigment is fucoxanthin the brown
pigment which colors kelps and other brown algae as well as the diatoms.
Phycobilins are water-soluble pigments, and are therefore found in the cytoplasm, or in the
stroma of the chloroplast. They occur only in Cyanobacteria and Rhodophyta.The picture at
the right shows the two classes of phycobilins which may be extracted from these "algae". The
vial on the left contains the bluish pigment phycocyanin, which gives the Cyanobacteria their
name. The vial on the right contains the reddish pigment phycoerythrin, which gives the red algae
their common name.Phycobilins are not only useful to the organisms which use them for soaking
up light energy; they have also found use as research tools. Both pycocyanin and
phycoerythrin fluoresce at a particular wavelength. That is, when they are exposed to strong light,
they absorb the light energy, and release it by emitting light of a very narrow range of wavelengths.
The light produced by this fluorescence is so distinctive and reliable, that phycobilins may be used
as chemical "tags". The pigments are chemically bonded to antibodies, which are then put into a
solution of cells. When the solution is sprayed as a stream of fine droplets past a laser and computer
sensor, a machine can identify whether the cells in the droplets have been "tagged" by the
antibodies. This has found extensive use in cancer research, for "tagging" tumor cells
The general features of a widely accepted mechanism for photoelectron transfer, in which
two light reactions (light reaction I and light reaction II) occur during the transfer of electrons
from water to carbon dioxide, were proposed by Robert Hill and Fay Bendall in 1960. This
mechanism is based on the relative potential (in volts) of various cofactors of the electron-transfer
chain to be oxidized or reduced. Molecules that in their oxidized form have the
strongest affinity for electrons (i.e., are strong oxidizing agents) have a low relative potential. In
contrast, molecules that in their oxidized form are difficult to reduce have a high relative potential
once they have accepted electrons. The molecules with a low relative potential are considered to
be strong oxidizing agents, and those with a high relative potential are considered to be strong
reducing agents.
Type equation here.
Flow of electrons during the light reaction stage of photosynthesis Arrows pointing upward represent light reactions
that increase the chemical potential; arrows slanting downward represent flow of electrons via carriers in the
membrane. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
In diagrams that describe the light reaction stage of photosynthesis, the actual photochemical steps
are typically represented by two vertical arrows. These arrows signify that the special pigments
P680 and P700 receive light energy from the light-harvesting chlorophyll-protein molecules and are
raised in energy from their ground state to excited states. In their excited state, these pigments are
extremely strong reducing agents that quickly transfer electrons to the first acceptor. These first
acceptors also are strong reducing agents and rapidly pass electrons to more stable carriers. In light
reaction II, the first acceptor may be pheophytin, which is a molecule similar to chlorophyllthat
also has a strong reducing potential and quickly transfers electrons to the next acceptor. Special
quinones are next in the series. These molecules are similar to plastoquinone; they receive
electrons from pheophytin and pass them to the intermediate electron carriers, which include the
plastoquinone pool and the cytochromes b and f associated in a complex with an iron-
sulfur protein.
In light reaction I, electrons are passed on to iron-sulfur proteins in the lamellar membrane, after
which the electrons flow to ferredoxin, a small water-soluble iron-sulfur protein. When
NADP+ and a suitable enzyme are present, two ferredoxin molecules, carrying one electron each,
transfer two electrons to NADP+, which picks up a proton (i.e., a hydrogen ion) and becomes
NADPH.
Each time a P680 or P700 molecule gives up an electron, it returns to its ground (unexcited) state, but
with a positive charge due to the loss of the electron. These positively charged ions are extremely
strong oxidizing agents that remove an electron from a suitable donor. The P680+ of light reaction II
is capable of taking electrons from water in the presence of appropriate catalysts. There is good
evidence that two or more manganeseatoms complexed with protein are involved in this catalysis,
taking four electrons from two water molecules (with release of four hydrogen ions). The
manganese-protein complex gives up these electrons one at a time via an unidentified carrier to
P680+, reducing it to P680. When manganese is selectively removed by chemical treatment, the
thylakoids lose the capacity to oxidize water, but all other parts of the electron pathway remain
intact.
In light reaction I, P700+ recovers electrons from plastocyanin, which in turn receives them from
intermediate carriers, including the plastoquinone pool and cytochrome b and cytochrome
molecules. The pool of intermediate carriers may receive electrons from water via light reaction II
and the quinones. Transfer of electrons from water to ferredoxin via the two light reactions and
intermediate carriers is called noncyclic electron flow. Alternatively, electrons may be transferred
only by light reaction I, in which case they are recycled from ferredoxin back to the intermediate
carriers. This process is called cyclic electron flow.
Carbon Fixation
In carbon fixation, a CO2 molecule from the atmosphere combines with a five-carbon
acceptor molecule called ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate (RuBP).The resulting six-carbon
compound is then split into two molecules of the three-carbon compound, 3-
phosphoglyceric acid (3-PGA).This reaction is catalyzed by the enzyme RuBP
carboxylase/oxygenase, also known as RuBisCO. Due to the key role it plays in
photosynthesis, RuBisCo is probably the most abundant enzyme on Earth.
Reduction
In the second stage of the Calvin cycle, the 3-PGA molecules created through carbon
fixation are converted into molecules of a simple sugar – glyceraldehyde-3 phosphate
(G3P).This stage uses energy from ATP and NADPH created in the light-dependent
reactions of photosynthesis. In this way, the Calvin cycle becomes the way in which plants
convert energy from sunlight into long-term storage molecules, such as sugars. The
energy from the ATP and NADPH is transferred to the sugars.This step is called
“reduction” because NADPH donates electrons to the 3-phosphoglyceric acid molecules
to create glyceraldehyde-3 phosphate. In chemistry, the process of donating electrons is
called “reduction,” while the process of taking electrons is called “oxidation.”
Regeneration
Aerobic denotes the term ‘in the presence of oxygen’ while the word anaerobic denotes
the ‘absence of oxygen’. So the respiration which occurs in the presence of oxygen is
called as aerobic respiration, on the other hand, respiration occurring in the absence of
oxygen is known anaerobic respiration.
So accordingly the chemical reaction involving the breakdown of the nutrient molecule
with the aim of producing energy is called respiration. Thus the energy required by the
body to perform well which is produced by the chemical reaction. This process takes place
in the mitochondria or in the cytoplasm of the cell either aerobically or anaerobically.
Aerobic respiration, a process that uses oxygen, and anaerobic respiration, a process
that doesn't use oxygen, are two forms of cellular respiration. Although some cells may engage in
just one type of respiration, most cells use both types, depending on an organism's needs. Cellular
respiration also occurs outside of macro-organisms, as chemical processes — for
example, in fermentation. In general, respiration is used to eliminate waste products and
generate energy.
Aerobic processes in cellular respiration can only occur if oxygen is present. When a cell
needs to release energy, the cytoplasm (a substance between a cell's nucleus and its
membrane) and mitochondria (organelles in cytoplasm that help with metabolic
processes) initiate chemical exchanges that launch the breakdown of glucose. This sugar
is carried through the blood and stored in the body as a fast source of energy. The
breakdown of glucose into adenosine triphosphate (ATP) releases carbon dioxide (CO2),
a product that needs to be removed from the body. In plants, the energy-releasing process
of photosynthesis uses CO2 and releases oxygen as its product.
Anaerobic processes do not use oxygen, so the pyruvate product — ATP is one kind of
pyruvate — remains in place to be broken down or catalyzed by other reactions, such as
what occurs in muscle tissue or in fermentation. Lactic acid, which builds up in muscles'
cells as aerobic processes fail to keep up with energy demands, is a byproduct of an
anaerobic process. Such anaerobic breakdowns provide additional energy, but lactic acid
build-up reduces a cell's capacity to further process waste; on a large scale in, say, a
human body, this leads to fatigue and muscle soreness. Cells recover by breathing in
more oxygen and through the circulation of blood, processes that help carry away lactic
acid.
Aerobic respiration
*requires oxygen
*occurs in the mitochondria
Anaerobic respiration
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Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org,
https://biologydictionary.net/upload/2016/12/Clorophill-ab-specta.jpg, Encyclopædia
Britannica, Inc.,