Its so beautiful out here. All these cool plants. I wonder how they do photosynthesis.
I can teach you that.
So basically, we do photosynthesis by absorbing sunlight, water and carbon. After that a chemical reaction occurs and turns all that into ATP and makes oxygen and glucose (sugar)
Cool! But how does all this happen?
This happens because of the reaction in the leaves. In leaves there is chloroplast, in chloroplast is stromas, in stromas there is thylakoids where everything happens which is Photosystem II and Photosystem I.
What is photosystem II?
Photosystem II is when the sunlight charges P680 (group of pigments) and gives energy to the electron. and then the water absorbed by the plant, splits up leaving hydrogen and oxygen molecules behind. Then the energized electron travels down the ETC and loses its energy as hydrogen gets pumped into the thylakoid. This forms the chemical equation Light + Water= hydrogen + oxygen
wow! what is photosystem I?
Photosystem I is when sunlight charges P700 (another group of pigments) and gives energy to the electron. The electron travels back down ETC and turns NADP+ to NADPH. Hydrogen then are pushed through the ATP synthase gate to the stroma. Forming the chemical equation ADP+H --> ATP.
dang thats a lot!
Were not done yet! after PSII and PSI then there is the calvin cycle. The Calvin Cycle has 3 stages the first stage is carbon fixation, when a carbon chain combines with rubisco to make an enzyme. the second stage is reduction when the carbon chain turns into 3-PGA and that turns into G3P. NADPH turns back into NADP+. The last stage is Regeneration when 1 molecule of G3P makes glucose (sugar) and the rest of the 5 molecules make RuBP and ATP turns to ADP. After that it needs to happen another 6 times to make a molecule of glucose.
Thats a lot about photosynthesis. Thank you for teaching me!