How is photosynthesis similar to the electron transport chain

The protein RuBisCO also helps in the process to change carbon from the air into sugars. RuBisCO works slowly, so plants need a lot of it.

In fact, RuBisCO is the most abundant protein in the world! The products of the Calvin cycle are used to make the simple sugar glucose. Glucose is used to build more complex sugars like starch and cellulose. Starch stores energy for the plant and cellulose is the stuff of which plants are made.

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What's a GMO? What's a Genome? At the very end of the process, electrons are accepted by oxygen, which then binds to the hydrogen ions in order to produce water. The final step in cellular respiration mirrors the beginning of photosynthesis, which pulls water apart and produces electrons, oxygen, and hydrogen ions.

Using this knowledge, you might also be able to predict that photosynthesis involves the movement of hydrogen ions across the thylakoid membrane in order to galvanize the production of ATP. These compounds enter a process like that of cellular respiration in reverse so that they can synthesize glucose for energy usage within the cell.

Cellular Respiration in Electron Flow. Updated June 10, What Happens in the Light Reaction of Photosynthesis? Why Is Water Important to Photosynthesis? Enzyme Activity in Photosynthesis. Components of Photosynthesis. Learn more here. Additional Sources:. When you select "Subscribe" you will start receiving our email newsletter. Use the links at the bottom of any email to manage the type of emails you receive or to unsubscribe.

See our privacy policy for additional details. Welcome to the Visible Body Blog! Cellular Respiration. Topics Biology.

Subscribe Here! Most Popular. Get our awesome anatomy emails! About News Contact. All Rights Reserved. User Agreement Privacy Permissions. Convert light energy into chemical energy. Chloroplasts - thylakoid membranes. Chloroplasts - stroma. Break down glucose into pyruvic acid pyruvate. Capture energy from chemical reactions, produce a little bit of ATP.

Mitochondria - matrix. Mitochondria - inner membrane. Cellular Respiration Aerobic. Chemical equation. Carbon dioxide, water, sunlight. The first is known as PQA. PQH2 passes these to the Cytochrome b6f complex Cb6f which uses passage of electrons through it to pump protons into the thylakoid space. Cb6f drops the electron off at plastocyanin, which holds it until the next excitation process begins with absorption of another photon of light at nm by PS I. PS I gains a positive charge as a result of the loss of an excited electron and pulls the electron in plastocyanin away from it.

Meanwhile, the excited electron from PS I passes through an iron-sulfur protein, which gives the electron to ferredoxin another iron sulfur protein. The electrons have made their way from water to NADPH via carriers in the thylakoid membrane and their movement has released sufficient energy to make ATP. Energy for the entire process came from four photons of light. The two photosystems performing all of this magic are protein complexes that are similar in structure and means of operation.

They absorb photons with high efficiency so that whenever a pigment in the photosynthetic reaction center absorbs a photon, an electron from the pigment is excited and transferred to another molecule almost instantaneously.

This reaction is called photo-induced charge separation and it is a unique means of transforming light energy into chemical forms.

Besides the path described above for movement of electrons through PS I, plants have an alternative route that electrons can take. Instead of electrons going through ferredoxin to form NADPH, they instead take a backwards path through the the proton-pumping b6f complex.

The ability of plants to switch between non-cyclic and cyclic photosystems allows them to make the proper ratio of ATP and NADPH they need for assimilation of carbon in the dark phase of photosynthesis. For the growing plant, the NADPH and ATP are used to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it ultimately into glucose and other important carbon compounds.

The oxygen liberated in the process is a necessary for respiration of all aerobic life forms on Earth. Indeed, it is believed that essentially all of the oxygen in the atmosphere today is the result the splitting of water in photosynthesis over the many eons that the process has existed. Photophosphorylation The third type of phosphorylation to make ATP is found only in cells that carry out photosynthesis.