STPM BIOLOGY Photosynthesis
STPM BIOLOGY Photosynthesis
STPM BIOLOGY Photosynthesis
– The chloroplast of plants capture light energy that has traveled 150 million
kilometers from the sun and convert it to chemical energy stored in sugar and
other organic molecules.
– This conversion process is called photosynthesis.
– Photosynthesis can be summarized as
6CO2 + 6H2O C6H12O6 + 6O2
Chloroplast
Importance of photosynthesis
Cyclic photophosphorylation
1. Carbon fixation
– The Calvin cycle incorporates each CO2 molecule, one at a time, by attaching it to
a five carbon sugar named ribulose bisphoshate (RuBP).
– The enzyme that catalyses this first step is RuBO carboxylase of rubisco.
– The product of the reaction is a six-carbon intermediate so unstable that it
immediately splits in half, forming two molecules of 3-phosphoglycerate.
1. Reduction
– Each molecule of 3-phosphoglycerate receives an additional phosphate group
from ATP becoming 1,3-bisphosphoglycerate.
– Next a pair of electrons donated from NADPH reduces 1,3-bisphosphoglycerate
which also loses a phosphate grouo becoming G3P.
– Specifically, the electrons from NADPH reduce a carboxyl group on 1,3-
bisphosphogylcerate to the aldehyde group of G3P, which stores more potential
energy.
– Notice that for every three molecules of CO2 that enter the cycle, there are six
molecules of G3P formed. But only one molecule of this three-carbon sugar can
be counted as a net gain of carbohydrate.
– The cycle began with 15 carbons’ worth of carbohydrate in the form of three
molecules of RuBP. Now there are 18 carbons’ worth of carbohydrate in the form
of G3P.
– One molecule exits the cycle to be used by the plant cell, nut the other five
molecules must be recycled to regenerate the three molecules of RuBP.
1. Regeneration of the CO2 acceptor
– In a complex series of reactions, the carbon skeletons of five molecules of G3P
are rearranged by the last steps of the Calvin cycle into three molecules of RuBP.
– To accomplish this, the cycle spends three more molecules of ATP.
– The RuBP is now prepared to receive CO2 again and the cycle continues.
Photorespiration
Mechanism of C4 pathway
1. The first step is carried out by an enzymes present only in the mesophyll cells
called PEP carboxylase. This enzyme adds CO2 to phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP),
forming the four-carbon product oxaloacetate. PEP carboxylase has a much
higher affinity for CO2 than does rubisco and no affinity for O2. Therefore, PEP
carboxylase can fix carbon efficiently when rubisco cannot – that is, when it is hot
and dry and stomata are partially closed, causing CO2 concentration in the leaf to
fall and O2 concentration to rise. Oxaloacetate then is reduced by NADPH to
produce malate.
2. After the C4 plant fixes carbon from CO2, the mesophyll cells export their four-
carbon products (malate) through plasmodesmata to bundle sheath cells.
3. Within the bundle sheath cells, malate release CO2, which is reassimilated into
organic material by rubisco and the Calvin cycle. The same reaction regenerates
pyruvate, which is transported to mesophyll cells. There, ATP is used to convert
pyruvate to PEP, allowing the reaction cycle to continue; this ATP can be thought
of as the “price” of concentrating CO2 in the bundle sheath cells.
CAM plants
– Notice that the CAM pathway is similar to the C4 pathway in that carbon dioxide
is first incorporated into organic intermediates before it enters the Calvin cycle.
– The difference is that in C4 plants, the initial steps of carbon fixation are separated
structurally from the Calvin cycle, whereas in CAM plants, the two steps occur at
separate times but within the same cell.