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This is one of two core processes in photosynthesis, and it occurs with astonishing efficiency (greater than 90%) because, in addition to direct excitation by light at 680 nm, the energy of light first harvested by antenna proteins at other wavelengths in the light-harvesting system is also transferred to these special chlorophyll molecules.
Photosynthesis usually refers to oxygenic photosynthesis, a process that produces oxygen. Photosynthetic organisms store the chemical energy so produced within intracellular organic compounds (compounds containing carbon) like sugars, glycogen , cellulose and starches .
The underlying force driving these reactions is the Gibbs free energy of the reactants relative to the products. If donor and acceptor (the reactants) are of higher free energy than the reaction products, the electron transfer may occur spontaneously. The Gibbs free energy is the energy available ("free") to do work.
Oxygenic photosynthesis can be performed by plants and cyanobacteria; cyanobacteria are believed to be the progenitors of the photosystem-containing chloroplasts of eukaryotes. Photosynthetic bacteria that cannot produce oxygen have only one photosystem, which is similar to either PSI or PSII .
An endergonic reaction (such as photosynthesis) is a reaction that requires energy to be driven. Endergonic means "absorbing energy in the form of work." The activation energy for the reaction is typically larger than the overall energy of the exergonic reaction (1). Endergonic reactions are nonspontaneous.
However, during the course of plastid evolution from their cyanobacterial endosymbiotic ancestors, extensive gene transfer from the chloroplast genome to the cell nucleus took place. This results in the four major thylakoid protein complexes being encoded in part by the chloroplast genome and in part by the nuclear genome.
The evolution of oxygen during the light-dependent steps in photosynthesis (Hill reaction) was proposed and proven by British biochemist Robin Hill. He demonstrated that isolated chloroplasts would make oxygen (O 2) but not fix carbon dioxide (CO 2). This is evidence that the light and dark reactions occur at different sites within the cell. [1 ...
Reaction centers are present in all green plants, algae, and many bacteria.A variety in light-harvesting complexes exist across the photosynthetic species. Green plants and algae have two different types of reaction centers that are part of larger supercomplexes known as P700 in Photosystem I and P680 in Photosystem II.