Bioenergetics Photosynthesis and Energy Flow

Bioenergetics Photosynthesis and Energy flow
 “Life can be viewed as a constant flow of energy “the energy that flows from the sun
into all biological spheres.
 How this energy is utilized and maximized is the primary role of the plants in the
ecosystem through the process of photosynthesis?
 Plants manufacture food molecules using the aids of sun’s energy and as
decomposers
 Animals cannot utilized suns energy directly in food making thus we are always
dependent on plants for our food source.
 Animals utilized food molecules manufactured by the plants using the energy from
the sun through the process of respiration.
 Photosynthesis and respiration are interconnected and one process cannot proceed
without the other.
POTENTIAL ENERGY-An object can store energy as the result of its position
KINETIC ENERGY-An object is the energy that it possesses due to its motion
THERMAL ENERGY- Comes from a substance whose whole molecules and atoms are
vibrating faster due to a rise in temperature. Heat energy is another name foe
thermal energy
SOLAR ENERGY- Is radiant and heat from the sun that is harnessed using a range of
ever-evolving technologies such as solar heating, photovoltaics, solar thermal
energy, solar architecture, molten salt power plants and artificial photosynthesis.
CHEMICAL ENERGY- Is energy stored in the bonds of chemical compounds, like
atoms and molecules. This energy is released when a chemical reaction takes place.
MECHANICAL ENERGY- Is the sum of kinetic and potential energy in an object that is
used to do work. In other words, it is energy in an object due to its motion or
position, or both.
There are two (2) ways in which organisms acquire energy or make food.
 HETEROTROPS- It usually refers to few one-celled organisms and animals, people)
because they cannot make their own food.
 AUTORTROPS- It usually refers to a green plants because only green plants can make
their own food
How green plants make their own food?
 Plants make their own food, glucose, in a [process called photosynthesis.
PHOTOSYNTHESIS
 It is a process by which green plants transform light energy into chemical energy.
 PHOTO means LIGHT and SYNTHESIS means PUTTING TOGETHER
 Just like human when we cook our food we need essential things like fire, water,
kitchen wares and ingredients of course.
 Similarly with our plants they also need essentials factors such as light, water and
nutrients from the soil.
 Plants get the light they need from the sun. Water from the ground. Carbon dioxide
from the air
 Plants get water they need for photosynthesis through their roots and transported
to the rest of the plant with our XYLEM
 XYLEM is a tube like material and it is located in the stem through which the water
can from the ground is sucked into the leaves.
 Leaves have important cells called MESOPHYLL
 It contains green color component called CHLOROPLAST
 Chloroplast contain stacks of thylakoids, which are flattened sacs of membrane.
Energy from sunlight is absorbed by the pigment CHLOROPHYLL in the thylakoid
membrane. There are two separates parts of chloroplast; the space in the
chloroplast and the space inside the thylakoids.
What goes in the plant cell to start photosynthesis?

 Of course we need the reactants such as our carbon dioxide, water and
sunlight
 These components must meet in the chloroplast of the leaf cell for
photosynthesis occur.
 Chlorophyll captured energy from the sun.
 It is located inside the thylakoid membrane inside the chloroplast.
 And carbon dioxide enters in a special opening of air called the stomata.
 The stomata (tiny holes underneath the leaf) allows air in and out of the leaf.
Stomata (single is called stomata) is usually at bottom surface of the leaf but
some plant species have them on the upper surface whiles other have them
on both sides.
 The stomata closes in the night to retain gases and moisture in the leaf cells
and opens during the day for gaseous exchange to continue.
Other than being green, what do all these fruits and vegetables have in common?
 They are full of energy. Energy in the form of glucose. The energy from sunlight is
briefly held in NADPH and ATP, which is needed to drive the formation of sugars
such as glucose. And this all happens in the Calvin Cycle.
THE CALVIN CYCLE
MAKING FOOD “From thin Air”
You’ve learned that the first, light-dependent stage of photosynthesis uses two of the three
reactants, water and light, and produces one of the products, oxygen gas( a waste product
of this process). All three necessary conditions are required chlorophyll pigments, the
chloroplast “theatre” and enzyme catalysts. The first stage transform light energy into
chemical energy, stored to this point in molecules of ATP and NADPH. Look again at the
overall equation below. What is left
Waiting in the wings is one more reactant, carbon dioxide, and yet to come is the star
product, which is food for all life – glucose. These key players perform in the second act of
the photosynthesis drama, in which food is “made from thin air”
The second stage of photosynthesis can proceed without light, so its steps are sometimes
called “light-independent” or “dark” reactions (though the term “dark” reactions can be
misleading). Many biologist honor the scientist, Melvin Calvin, who won a 1961 Nobel Prize
for working out this complex set of chemical reactions, naming it the Calvin Cycle.
The Calvin Cycle has two parts. First carbon dioxide is “fixed”. Then ATP and NADPH from
the light reactions provide energy to combine the fixed carbons to make sugar.
Carbon Dioxide is “Fixed”
Why does carbon dioxide need to be fixed? Was it ever broken?
Life on Earth is carbon-based. Organisms need not only energy but also carbon atoms for
building bodies. For nearly all life, the ultimate source of carbon dioxide (CO2), an inorganic
molecule, CO2 makes up less than 1% of the Earth’s Atmosphere .
Animals and most other heterotrophs cannot take in CO2 directly. They must eat other
organisms or absorb organic molecules to get Carbon. Only Autotrophs can build low-energy
inorganic CO2 into high-energy organic molecules like glucose. This process is carbon
fixation.
Plants have evolved three pathways for carbon fixation
The most common pathway combines one molecule of CO2 with a 5-carbon sugar called
ribulose biphosphate (RuBP). The enzyme which catalyzes this reaction (nicknamed RuBisCo)
is the most abundant enzyme on earth! The resulting 6-carbon molecule is unstable, so it
immediately splits into two 3-carbon molecules. The 3 carbons in the first stable molecule of
this pathway give the largest group of plants the name “C3”.
Dry air, hot temperatures, and bright sunlight slow the C3 pathway for carbon fixation. This
is because stomata, tiny openings under the leaf which normally allow CO2 to enter and O2
to leave, must close to prevent loss of water vapor (Figure above). Closed stomata lead to a
shortage of CO2. Two alternative pathways for carbon fixation demonstrate biochemical
adaptations to differing environments.
Plant such as corn solve the problem using a separate compartment to fix CO2. Here CO2
combines with a 3-carbon molecule, resulting in a 4-carbon molecule. Because the first
stable organic molecule has four carbon, this adaptation has the name C4. Shuttled away
from the initial fixation site, the 4-carbon molecule is actually broken back down into CO2,
and when enough accumulates, RuBisCo fixes it a second time! Compartments allows
efficient use of low concentrations of carbon dioxide in these specialized plants.
Cacti and succulents such as the jade plant avoid water loss by fixing CO2 only at night.
These plants close their stomata during the day and open them only in the cooler and more
humid night time hours. Leaf structure differs slightly from that of C4 plants, but the fixation
pathways are similar. The family of plants in which this pathway discovered gives the
pathway its name, Crassulacean Acid Metabolism, or CAM (Figure below). All three carbon
fixation pathways lead to the Calvin Cycle to build sugar.
How does the Calvin Cycle store Energy in sugar?
As Melvin Calvin discovered, carbon fixation is the first step of a cycle. Like an electron
transport chain, the Calvin cycle, shown in (Figure Below) transfer energy in small,
controlled steps. Each steps pushes molecules uphill in terms of energy content. Recall that
electronic transfer chain, excited electrons lose energy to NADPH and ATP. In the Calvin
cycle, NADPH and ATP formed in the light reactions lose their stored chemical energy to
build glucose.
SUMMARY
1. The reaction of Calvin Cycle add carbon (from carbon dioxide in the atmosphere) to a
simple 5-carbon molecule called RuBP.
2. These reactions use chemical energy from NADPH and ATP that were produced in
the light reactions.
3. The final product of the Calvin Cycle is glucose.
 What happens during the carbon fixation step of the Calvin Cycle?
 What is special in RuBisCo?
 What are stomata?
 Explain what might happen if the third step of the Calvin Cycle did not occur. Why?
 What is the main final product of the Calvin Cycle? How many turns of the Calvin
Cycle are needed to produce this product?

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What goes in the plant cell to start photosynthesis?

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