Chlorophyll
Chlorophyll is a green photosynthetic pigment found in plants, algae, and cyanobacteria. Chlorophyll absorbs most strongly in the blue and to a lesser extent red portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The green portions of the electromagnetic spectrum, including wavelengths between 500 and approximately 600 nanometers, are not absorbed well, but are reflected by the plants, hence the green color of chlorophyll-containing tissues like plant leaves. Chlorophyll is an essential component of photosynthesis, which helps plants get energy from the light.
Its name is derived from ancient Greek: chloros = green and phyllon = leaf.
Chlorophyll and photosynthesis
In plant photosynthesis, incoming light is absorbed by chlorophyll and other accessory pigments in the antenna complexes of photosystem I and photosystem II. The antenna pigments are predominantly chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, absorbing violet-blue and red light, respectively, and carotenoids. Their absorption spectra are non-overlapping, which serves to broaden the specific bandwidths of light these individual compounds absorb during the process of photosynthesis. The carotenoids also play a role as antioxidants, and serve to reduce photo-oxidative damage to chlorophyll molecules.
Each antenna complex has between 250 and 400 pigment molecules, and the energy they absorb is shuttled by resonance energy transfer to a specialized chlorophyll a at the reaction center of each photosystem. When either of the two chorophyll a molecules at the reaction center absorb energy, an electron is excited and transferred to an electron-acceptor molecule, leaving an electron hole in the donor chlorophyll. In a poorly-understood reaction, electrons from water molecules participate in an oxidation reaction, where the hole from the donor chlorophyll is filled (recombined with another electron), and diatomic oxygen is produced. Resulting chemical energy originating from the initial excited electron is eventually captured in the form of ATP and NADPH, and is then ultimately used to convert carbon dioxide (CO2) to carbohydrates. This CO2 fixation process results in the conversion (or an integrated external quantum efficiency) of 3% to 6% of the total incident solar radiation, with a theoretical maximum efficiency of 11%. [1]
Special pair
The photosystem reaction centers consist of a "special pair" of chlorophyll a molecules that are characterised by their specific absorption maximum. The special pair in photosystem I are designated P700, and those from photosystem II are designated P680. The P is short for pigment, and the number is the specific absorption peak in nanometers for the chlorophyll molecules in each reaction center.
Chlorophyll a is common to all eukaryotic photosynthetic organisms, and, due to its central role in the reaction center, is essential for photosynthesis. The accessory pigments such as chlorophyll b and carotenoids are not essential. Some algae, such as brown algae and diatoms, use chlorophyll c as a substitute for chlorophyll b. Historically, red algae have been assumed to have chlorophyll d, although it could not be isolated from all species and even different collections of the same species. This puzzle has recently been resolved, since the chlorophyll d is actually from an epiphytic cyanobacterium (Acaryochloris marina) that lives on the red algae. These cyanobacteria have a ratio of chlorophyll d: chlorophyll a of approximately 30:1, and represent a rare example of a photosystem with chlorophyll d at the reaction center of the photosystem. All other known eukaryotes and cyanobacteria use chlorophyll a. There are likely to be many chlorophyll-d containing organisms awaiting discovery, for example a free living form was recently found in the Salton Sea (a salt lake in USA).
Other chemical variations of chlorophyll are found in photosynthetic bacteria, other than cyanobacteria. Purple bacteria use bacteriochlorophyll, which absorbs infrared light between 800nm - 1000nm, and the green sulphur bacteria chlorobium chlorophyll. All known bacteria with bacteriochlorophyll have a form of photosynthesis which does not involve evolution of oxygen and so are called anoxyphotobacteria. There is a very large number of different bacteriochlorophylls in different anoxyphotobacteria including one species which contains Zinc, rather than the usual Magnesium as the co-ordinated metal.
Chemical structure
| Chlorophyll a | Chlorophyll b | Chlorophyll c1 | Chlorophyll c2 | Chlorophyll d | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Molecular formula | C55H72O5N4Mg | C55H70O6N4Mg | C35H30O5N4Mg | C35H28O5N4Mg | C54H70O6N4Mg |
| C3 group | -CH=CH2 | -CH=CH2 | -CH=CH2 | -CH=CH2 | -CHO |
| C7 group | -CH3 | -CHO | -CH3 | -CH3 | -CH3 |
| C8 group | -CH2CH3 | -CH2CH3 | -CH2CH3 | -CH=CH2 | -CH2CH3 |
| C17 group | -CH2CH2COO-Phytyl | -CH2CH2COO-Phytyl | -CH=CHCOOH | -CH=CHCOOH | -CH2CH2COO-Phytyl |
| C17-C18 bond | Single | Single | Double | Double | Single |
| Occurrence | Universal | Mostly plants | Various algae | Various algae | cyanobacteria |
Evidence for chlorophyll
Chlorophyll can be shown to be vital for photosynthesis by destarching a leaf from a variegated plant and exposing it to light for several hours. (Variegated leaves have green areas that contain chlorophyll and white areas that have none.) When tested with iodine solution, a color change revealing the presence of starch occurs only in regions of the leaf that were green and therefore contained chlorophyll. This shows that photosynthesis does not occur in areas where chlorophyll is absent, and constitutes evidence that the presence of chlorophyll is a requirement for photosynthesis.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Mauseth, J.D. 2003. Botany: an introduction to plant biology. James and Bartlett Publishers. ISBN 0763721344
- Speer, Brian R. (1997). "Photosynthetic Pigments" in UCMP Glossary (online). University of California, Berkeley Museum of Paleontology. Verified availability March 20, 2006.
- Raven, P.H. and G.B. Johnson. 1996. Biology. (Fourth edition). Wm. C. Brown Publishers, Dubuque, IA. ISBN. 0697225704
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