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Concept
Photosynthesis
Summary
Photosynthesis (ˌfoʊtəˈsɪnθəsɪs ) is a biological process used by many cellular organisms to convert light energy into chemical energy, which is stored in organic compounds that can later be metabolized through cellular respiration to fuel the organism's activities. The term usually refers to oxygenic photosynthesis, where oxygen is produced as a byproduct, and some of the chemical energy produced is stored in carbohydrate molecules such as sugars, starch and cellulose, which are synthesized from endergonic reaction of carbon dioxide with water. Most plants, algae and cyanobacteria perform photosynthesis; such organisms are called photoautotrophs. Photosynthesis is largely responsible for producing and maintaining the oxygen content of the Earth's atmosphere, and supplies most of the biological energy necessary for complex life on Earth.
Some bacteria also perform anoxygenic photosynthesis, which use bacteriochlorophyll to split hydrogen sulfide as a reductant instead of water, and sulfur is produced as a byproduct instead of oxygen. Archaea such as Halobacterium also perform a type of non-carbon-fixing anoxygenic photosynthesis, where the simpler photopigment retinal and its microbial rhodopsin derivatives are used to absorb green light and power proton pumps to directly synthesize adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Such archaeal photosynthesis might have been the earliest form of photosynthesis evolved on Earth, going back as far as the Paleoarchean, preceding that of cyanobacteria (see Purple Earth hypothesis).
Although photosynthesis is performed differently by different species, the process always begins when energy from light is absorbed by proteins called reaction centers that contain photosynthetic pigments or chromophores. In plants, these proteins are chlorophyll (a porphyrin derivative that absorbs the red and blue spectrums of light, thus reflecting a green color) held inside organelles called chloroplasts, which are most abundant in leaf cells, while in bacteria they are embedded in the plasma membrane.
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