Question

Photosynthesis

1. Know the photosynthesis equation

2. Understand what pigments are in plants and their functions; including why having multiple types of pigments rather than just chlorophyll is beneficial.

3. Basic understanding of color: when we see a color, what are our eyes really detecting? In other words, why do we see plants as green? What does that tell us about the wavelengths that the chlorophylls absorb?

4. Have a good understanding of the virtual chromatography lab; not necessarily the exact procedures, but an understanding of what was happening in the normal versus boiled chloroplasts.

Answer 1

1)Light energy + water+ carbon dioxide ------ glucose + oxygen .

Photosynthesis involve two reaction such as light independent reaction and light dependent reaction. In light dependent reaction NADPH is formed and in light independent reaction NADPH is used in carbon dioxide fixation which lead to glucose synthesis.

2) chlorophyll a , chlorophyll b , carotenoids and xanthophyll are the pigments present in plants.

Carotenoids help in pollination by attracting pollinators and also absorb light energy and transfer it to the reaction center. Xanthophyll , chlorophyll a and b absorb light of different wavelengths and Transfer the energy to the reaction centre . Reaction center include photosystem I and II.

Multiple pigment are present because different pigment molecule absorb light of different wavelengths. As a result large amount of energy is captured and transferred.

3) plants appear green because the pigments molecule such as chlorophyll absorb light of longer wavelengths such as red and also absorb light of shorter wavelengths such as blue but does not absorb green light . On reflection the plant depicted green colour.

4) normal chloroplast organelle show photosynthesis as all the proteins are functioning in proper conditions but boiled chloroplast on the other hand does not show photosynthesis due to denaturation of the proteins at high temperature.