Chapter 10 Flashcards
Photosynthesis
Heterotrophs
Unable to make their own food. Live on compounds produced by other organisms. Consumers. Eating others or the remains of others. Decomposers = heterotrophs.
Autotrophs
Producers. Self-feeders. Produce their organic molecules from CO2 and other inorganic raw materials. Plants and some bacteria.
Photoautotrophs
Autotrophs that specifically use light energy to drive the synthesis of organic molecules from CO2 and (in most cases) water. Plants, algae, non-algal unicellular protists, prokaryotes called cyanobacteria and other photosynthetic prokaryotes.
Chloroplast
Eukaryotic organelle that absorbs energy from sunlight and uses it. EUKARYOTIC ONLY, there are prokaryotes who can do photosynthesis, but they don’t use the chloroplast.
Chlorophyll
A fat-soluble pigment found naturally in plants. It is the substance that gives plants their green color and helps them create energy via photosynthesis.
Green pigment gives leaves color, resides in the thylakoid membranes of the chloroplast. Absorbs light energy.
Mesophyll
Tissues in the interior of a leaf, where chloroplasts are mainly found. Typically has about 30-40 chloroplast.
Stomata
Microscopic pores (mostly on the bottom of leaves) that O2 exits by.
Stroma
A dense fluid in the two membranes of the chloroplast. Space inside the chloroplast.
Thylakoids
Sacs suspended in the stroma. Inside thylakoids is thylakoid space. Stacked in columns called grana (singular, granum). Light reactions take place here.
Split Water
6CO2 + 6H2O + LE -> C6H12O6 + 6O2
Simplest form: CO2 + H2O -> [CH2O] + O2 (O2 comes from water, not CO2).
2 stages of photosynthesis
- Light reactions
- Calvin cycle
Calvin Cycle (Dark cycle)
Named for Melvin Calvin. Takes place in the Stroma.
1. Incorporates CO2 from the air. This initial incorporation of carbon into organic compounds is known as carbon fixation.
2. Reduces the fixed carbon to carbohydrate via the addition of electrons. (provided by NADPH and ATP from the light reactions).
3. Produces [CH2O] per cycle, usually written in sets of 3, producing G3P.
4. Requires 3 ATP and 2 NADPH per cycle. To make 1 glucose molecule, you need 6 cycles = 18 ATP and 12 NADPH.
Light reactions
Convert solar energy to chem. energy.
1. Water is split -> H+ and O2 ions.
2. Light absorbed by chlorophyll drives a transfer of electrons and H+ ions to an acceptor called NADP+. Creates NADPH.
3. Photophosphorylation via light reactions creates ATP.
Gets the NADP+ and ADP + Pi from the Calvin cycle.
Light + Water -> NADPH + ATP
Photophosphorylation
A process in which light reactions generate ATP using chemiosmosis to power the addition of a phosphate group to an ADP.
Adding a phosphate group to sumthin
Visible light
Wavelength (distance between crests of electromagnetic waves) of 380 nm to 740 nm. Can be detected as various colors by the human eye.
Photons
Not tangible objects, but they act like objects in that each of them has a fixed quantity of energy. Shorter wavelength = greater energy of each photon of that light.
A particle representing a quantum of light or other electromagnetic radiation. A photon carries energy proportional to the radiation frequency but has zero rest mass.