Questions tagged [photosynthesis]

The process by which light energy is harnessed to assemble organic compounds (esp. glucose) from inorganic carbon dioxide.

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
0 votes
0 answers
23 views

Chloroplast arrangement in high and low intensity of light

I have read that there are different alignments of chloroplast according to the intensity of light. I read that in high intensity the chloroplast align themselves parallel to the incident light (...
Phy14's user avatar
  • 1
0 votes
1 answer
48 views

Is kranz anatomy not a defining feature of $C_4$ plant?

In NCERT Class 11 chapter 13 it is written that The particularly large cells around the vascular bundles of the C4 plants are called bundle sheath cells, and the leaves which have such anatomy are ...
Harjot Dhillon's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
42 views

Does a tree absorb carbon dioxide only by its outer growth ring?

I'm trying to understand how the amount of carbon-14 isotope is changing in a tree trunk, so I would like to clarify if a tree absorbs carbon dioxide only by its outer growth ring in a current year of ...
misha.physics's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
78 views

How many photosystems in a chloroplast?

I haven't been able to find any good order-of-magnitude estimates for how many photosystems (e.g. how many PSII complexes, how many PSI complexes) are in an average chloroplast (or perhaps per area of ...
user265902's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
64 views

How does photosynthesis work exactly?

How does light reach the photoreceptors in plants? Does it need to travel through the plant or are the photoreceptors on the surface of the plant ?
Keegan Davidson's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
21 views

Are there any Bilateria directly able to photosynthesise? If not, are such feasible/possible?

I'm trying to think of a type of animal, easily understood, that does not (and never has) existed, but that could feasibly exist. As most non-bilateral animals are complicated for a child, I was ...
Konchog's user avatar
  • 141
1 vote
1 answer
58 views

Pathway where carbon dioxide captured by phosphoenolpyruvate is not re-released?

I have been reading about C4 carbon fixation in which CO2 is captured by phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) to make oxaloacetate. Are there known pathways in plants that use substantial amounts of this ...
Polypipe Wrangler's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
37 views

Absorption bands of chlorophyll

I am currently reading this article, which discusses the functional impact of the $Q_x$ and $Q_y$ absorption bands of chlorophyll in photosynthesis. However, the article didn't say where on the ...
slithy-tove's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
38 views

Sources of chlorophyll fluorescence

I have been reading this article recently, which claims that photoinhibition of photosystem II can have measurable impacts of chlorophyll fluorescence. This confused me, however, because ...
slithy-tove's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
23 views

Primary charge separation in Photosystem II

I was reading through an article about primary charge separation in Photosystem II when I came across the following graphic: I assumed that the axis is measured with respect to the unexcited system, ...
slithy-tove's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
2k views

Why does photosynthesis specifically produce glucose?

Why not a pentose? Or a tetrose? Or a deoxy sugar? Or just some other hexose, like fructose? Is there some chemical reason life should have settled on glucose as the standard photosynthetic output, or ...
Logan R. Kearsley's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
36 views

Photolysis of water

Photolysis of water releases $\text{O}_2$, $\text{H}^+$ ions and $\text{e}^-$. $\text{Mn}$ in the $\text{O}_2$ evolving complex also produces $\text{e}^-$. What provides $\text{e}^-$ to P680:$\text{Mn}...
Asha Kiran Lima's user avatar
15 votes
2 answers
4k views

Do photosynthesis and respiration violate the law of conservation of energy?

I don't know, if it's a physics question, biology or chemistry question but anyways here it is: I have been taught that to produce one molecule of glucose in photosynthesis, 18 ATP molecules are used ...
Chahak's user avatar
  • 269
2 votes
1 answer
112 views

How can this coral survive with little sunlight?

Forgive me if this question is off topic, but I’ve seen similar questions so I think it should be on topic. I’m at the beach currently, and I was looking in tide pools for interesting things. I found ...
Topcode's user avatar
  • 143
2 votes
1 answer
101 views

Production of “Green Hydrogen” by photosynthesis

In a popular science book from the 1970s I read about experiments to tweak some microorganisms to produce elemental hydrogen by photosynthesis. Is this a feasible way to produce “Green hydrogen”? What ...
Sir Cornflakes's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
280 views

Is plastoquinone not an electron carrier?

In my book, under the topic chemiosmotic hypothesis, it is given that proton gradient is created by accumulation of protons in the lumen of thylakoids. One of the ways by which the gradient is created ...
Praanjali's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
33 views

How much sunlight is required for photosynthesis to peak?

I've read that photosynthesis peaks at some point over light intensities https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PI_curve According to https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z9pjrwx/revision/5 suggests At very ...
John M.'s user avatar
  • 121
4 votes
1 answer
172 views

Does biofilm formation hinder photosythesis?

In photosynthetic bacteria such as Cyanobacteria, Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, the bacteria need access to both light, CO2, and water to perform photosynthesis. However, in thick biofilm structures (e....
Anwar Elhadad's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
83 views

How much air does a square meter of sugar beet consume per hour?

I've come across a person who tried to disprove photosynthesis (yeah, I know). The basically took numbers of record sugar beet crop in Chile (192 tonnes per hectare), and tried to calculate how much ...
Wanderer's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
20 views

Can I use the Winkler method as a way to measure the rate of photosynthesis?

I want to make an investigation where I measure how the color of light affects the rate of photosynthesis. The idea is to put an Elodea plant in a test tube and shine with different color of light ...
MrJohn's user avatar
  • 11
3 votes
1 answer
232 views

How should I measure the oxygen dispersed during photosynthesis in pondweeds?

I am to conduct a lab investigating how different wavelengths of light affects photosynthesis in Egeria pondweeds. The idea is to put color filters on light bulbs and shine them on the pondweed in a ...
Timothy's user avatar
  • 31
1 vote
0 answers
45 views

Chemiosmotic hypothesis [closed]

During the transport of electrons, some H+ are removed from the chloroplast stroma, which causes a proton gradient to build up inside the thylakoid lumen. But what's the source of H+ in stroma at the ...
Mohit J's user avatar
  • 49
2 votes
3 answers
9k views

Why are 6 turns of the Calvin cycle needed to make one molecule of glucose?

I‘ve read that 6 turns of the Calvin cycle are required to make 1 glucose molecule. But, 3CO2 and 3RuBP are used in one cycle and 6 triose phosphate is produced. Only 5 triose phosphate molecules are ...
ninetysix's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
167 views

The reason behind red drop effect

I was reading about Emersion effect on Wikepedia, I was not able to correlate our current knowledge of photosynthesis with this effect, First red drop effect When Emerson exposed green plants to ...
Samardeep singh's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
39 views

which carbohydrates are produced in the Calvin Cycle?

I understand the structure of simple carbohydrates (di- and monosaccharides, etc.,) but I'm encountering inconsistent/confusing nomenclature while trying to understand the Calvin Cycle. One source ...
charlie_sar's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
27 views

In the Kok cycle occurring in Photosystem II's Oxygen-evolving Complex, what exactly does P680 do?

I've been reading up on the oxygen-evolving complex using a few sources, but am a non-biology major so my understanding might be somewhat/very flawed. I've been using this source mainly: https://...
Purple Thing's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
26 views

Cyanobacteria and the ratio of Iron to Phosphorous

In listening to a recorded lecture that touched on the Great Oxidation Event, a casual remark was made to the effect that the shifting of the Earth's constituents to more availability of phosphorous ...
user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
75 views

Blooming at moonlight

At the moment a popular question in the physics SE community is about night-blooming cereus: this flower blooms at full moon, that is it is capable of making difference between the moonlight and ...
Roger V.'s user avatar
  • 3,832
-1 votes
1 answer
62 views

Amount of carbon captured in photosynthesis by a plant

Is it more proportional to the mass or the volume of the plant? I thought it might be helpful to think on the cellular level here. Even a reference to an external explanation would be useful.
PineappleThursday's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
191 views

What genes are required to make E. coli photosynthetic?

"All" of the genes for bacterial photosynthesis were discovered in a gene cluster almost 40 years ago. Marrs, J.Bact. What more is needed to make E. coli photosynthetic?
Youvan's user avatar
  • 159
4 votes
2 answers
235 views

CAM Photosynthesis Oxygen Generation?

I've been looking into CAM plants - notably the snake plant which is native to West Africa. Upon researching the CAM photosynthesis cycle, I've found it fascinating that the plant stores CO2 at night ...
user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
189 views

Structure and reactions of the cofactors of oxidoreductases such as ferredoxin

I have seen the word flavoprotein being used in place of ferredoxin in few places and vice-versa. I have not found any source that mentions them both together and explains the relation between them. ...
mani datta s's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
67 views

Calvin cycle- combining three "turns"

In the common Calvin cycle diagram, it is commonly stated that "three cycles are combined to show the production of 1 molecule of G3P". How does the G3P molecule escape from this cycle in ...
ten1o's user avatar
  • 115
1 vote
0 answers
45 views

Is there a known efficiency rate for CO2 capture from ambient air in photosynthesising plants?

When humans take in air to their lungs, we capture about 5% of the total quantity of the air as oxygen (which in turn equals about 24% of the available oxygen in the air) Is there an equivalent rate ...
Amphibio's user avatar
  • 263
-1 votes
1 answer
711 views

Light intensity effect on plant transpiration

In the graph of light intensity versus rate of transpiration, the rate increases up to a certain point but then remains constant. What is the reason that it stays constant, is there a limiting factor ...
ten1o's user avatar
  • 115
1 vote
1 answer
54 views

How do the High-Energy Electrons During Chemiosmosis Come from Water?

On Pg. 199 of Campbell, this is stated. Both* work by way of chemiosmosis, but in chloro- plasts, the high-energy electrons dropped down the transport chain come from water, while in mitochondria, ...
ImogenAscendance 's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
158 views

How come only a handful of animals can do photosynthesis?

As far as I understand, all the energy that living beings rely on comes from the sun. It's processed by plants in photosynthesis. These plants are consumed by herbivores, which in turn are consumed by ...
Ram Rachum's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
590 views

Do fish depend on plants for survival?

As far as I know, all land life depends on plants for survival. Plants convert sunlight to energy using photosynthesis, herbivores consume plants, and carnivores consume herbivores. All the energy is ...
Ram Rachum's user avatar
-3 votes
2 answers
147 views

Why doesn't the rate of photosynthesis increase with increasing light energy (frequency)? [duplicate]

Why doesn't the rate of photosynthesis increase with increasing light energy (frequency)? I know that green light is not absorbed by chlorophyll, yet I am confused as to why this certain "...
Kim Miso's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
632 views

How many times did photosynthesis evolve?

Was it a 1 and done thing? Plants seem to have developed photosynthesis by the endosymbiosis of cyanobacteria. Is the latter the one time in Earth's history that the process independently came about? ...
N Francis's user avatar
  • 169
0 votes
0 answers
66 views

Can we achieve complete photosynthesis on a petri dish? Barriers and potential

If we were to place bacteriorhodopsin and ATP synthase in an acidified solution (for H+ ions) filled with phospholipids, ADP and inorganic phosphate, hopefully the bacteriorhodopsin and ATP synthase ...
Cheng's user avatar
  • 119
0 votes
0 answers
25 views

Are there any fluorescent proteins capable of transforming 500-600 nm light to 400-500 or 600-700 nm?

In order to improve photosynthesis, which doesn't use 500-600 nm light, I wonder if that light can be transformed into useful light? The idea is to transfect photosynthesis organisms with the gene for ...
David Jonsson's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
366 views

What part, roughly, of the carbon in a plant comes from the soil? As opposed to the atmosphere?

C4 plants contain a slightly higher percentage of carbon-13 than C3 plants. Is this because of carbon obtained from the soil or the atmosphere? I have read that plants using different chemical ...
Kurt Hikes's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
149 views

Can we produce sugar using chlorophyll dissolved in ethanol?

I can't find anything about this on the net. I read in my (high-school) textbook that if plants get sunlight, water and carbon dioxide, and the catalyst called chlorophyll, they can make sugar. I'm ...
El Flea's user avatar
  • 125
2 votes
1 answer
831 views

Is this question about limiting factors answerable?

This is from a Singapore-Cambridge GCE O-level Biology exam (a national exam for 16-year-olds). The exam board maintains that the question is "correct and accurate"—but isn't there a typo in ...
user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
651 views

How does the light-independent stage of photosynthesis get H+ ions?

From what I understand from my grade 11 biology: During the light-dependent stage of photosynthesis, water molecules split, producing hydrogen and oxygen atoms. The oxygen atoms are basically “waste ...
user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
251 views

How is Elysia chlorotica classified as an animal capable of photosynthesis?

Elysia chlorotica is a kind of sea slug. Technically, it's an animal. However, it undergoes a process called kleptoplasty, which is the absorption of chloroplasts from algal prey cells which are then ...
user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
155 views

How quickly are plants able to sense changes in light intensity?

Evidently due to the process of photosynthesis, plants are able to "sense" light (as demonstrated by the phototropic response). My question is, how quickly are plants able to perceive ...
user8577185's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
68 views

Is there such a thing as an autotroph that doesn't use photosynthesis?

I've heard of photoautotrophs, which are just autotrophs that use photosynthesis. What I'm wondering is if there's any other way for an organism to make its own food that doesn't involve it using ...
user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
32 views

Phytomass and photosynthesis

I have been introduced to the term "phytomass" and I was wondering if phytomass can be both photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic?
JulianAngussmith's user avatar

1
2 3 4 5
7