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In photophosphorylation, light energy is used to pump protons across a biological membrane, mediated by flow of electrons through an electron transport chain. This stores energy in a proton gradient. As the protons flow back through an enzyme called ATP synthase, ATP is generated from ADP and inorganic
The source of electrons for photosynthesis in green plants and cyanobacteria is water. Two water molecules are oxidized by the energy of four successive charge-separation reactions of photosystem II to yield a molecule of diatomic oxygen and four hydrogen ions.
Electrons within these molecules are promoted to a higher-energy state. 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 ...
Once the light energy has been absorbed directly by the pigment molecules, or passed to them by resonance transfer from a surrounding light-harvesting complex, they release electrons into an electron transport chain and pass energy to a hydrogen donor such as H 2 O to extract electrons and protons from it.
These contain about 14 chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b molecules, as well as about four carotenoids. In the reaction center of PSII of plants and cyanobacteria, the light energy is used to split water into oxygen, protons, and electrons. The protons will be used in proton pumping to fuel the ATP synthase at the end of an electron transport ...
By replenishing lost electrons with electrons from the splitting of water, photosystem II provides the electrons for all of photosynthesis to occur. The hydrogen ions (protons) generated by the oxidation of water help to create a proton gradient that is used by ATP synthase to generate ATP .
The protons in the lumen come from three primary sources. Photolysis by photosystem II oxidises water to oxygen, protons and electrons in the lumen. The transfer of electrons from photosystem II to plastoquinone during non-cyclic electron transport consumes two protons from the stroma. These are released in the lumen when the reduced ...
The antenna complex is composed of molecules of chlorophyll and carotenoids mounted on two proteins. [11] These pigment molecules transmit the resonance energy from photons when they become photoexcited. Antenna molecules can absorb all wavelengths of light within the visible spectrum. [12]