In: Biology
Organisms have several differing types of chlorophylls. Explain how this variation enables these organisms to have a greater fitness.
Answer
Chlorophyll - pigment is found in a plant’s
chloroplasts, which are small structures in a plant’s cells. this
is often where photosynthesis takes place absorbs principally
within the blue and to a lesser extent red parts of the
electromagnetic spectrum, hence its intense green color.
additionally, to giving plants their green color, chlorophyll is
important for photosynthesis because it helps to channel the energy
of sunlight into chemical energy. With photosynthesis, chlorophyll
absorbs energy and so transforms water and CO2 into oxygen and
carbohydrates.
Chlorophyll occurs in many distinct forms, chlorophylls a
and b are the main types found in higher plants and green algae;
chlorophylls c and d are found, usually with a, in several
algae; chlorophyll e is a rare type found in some golden algae, and
bacterio-chlorophyll occurs in a certain bacterium. In green
plants, chlorophyll occurs in membranous discoid units (thylakoids)
in organelles known as chloroplasts.
Chlorophyll is found in all organisms that photosynthesize,
together with an alga. the reason that chlorophyll
a is crucial is that it's ready to capture light-weight
wavelengths that fall within the spectrum of sunlight. Once
captured by chlorophyll a (which is found in an organelle referred
to as chloroplast), sunlight combines with water and CO2 to produce
energy and glucose molecules used to power the alga cell's
function. chlorophyll a is a green pigment, that is what offers
plants and plenty of algae their natural green color.
Chlorophyll b is a green chlorophyll pigment found
in plants and green algae. chlorophyll b augments chlorophyll a's
ability to capture sunlight
Chlorophyll c occurs in certain types of algae,
including dinoflagellates. similar to chlorophyll b, chlorophyll c
helps to gather sunlight, however, it doesn't participate in
photosynthesis beyond the initial stage. chlorophyll c could be a
reddish-brown pigment and gives dinoflagellates its distinctive
color.
These kinds of chlorophyll work in concert to allow maximum
absorption of light within the blue to red spectrum; but, not all
photosynthetic organisms have the chlorophyll b pigment. These
chlorophyll molecules capture light energy and transfer it to the
reaction center of the cell. From here, electrons are passed from
this absorbed light energy to water molecules leading to the
formation of hydrogen ions and oxygen. The oxygen is discharged as
a by-product; whereas the hydrogen ions are transferred across the
plant’s thylakoid membrane leading to the phosphorylation of
adenosine diphosphate (ADP) into adenosine triphosphate (ATP). ATP
then later reduces a coenzyme called nicotinamide adenine
dinucleotide phosphate (NADP) to NADPH2, which is then used to
convert CO2 into sugar.