Photosynthesis in Higher Plants — BIOLOGY STD 11 Science — Question

Light reactions or the 'Photochemical' phase include following steps:

• Light absorption
• Water splitting
• Oxygen release
• The formation of high-energy chemical intermediates, ATP and NADPH.

Several complexes are involved in the process. The pigments are organised into two discrete photochemical light harvesting complexes (LHC) within the Photosystem I (PS I) and Photosystem II (PS II). These are named in the sequence of their discovery, and not in the sequence in which they function during the light reaction. The LHC are made up of hundreds of pigment molecules bound to proteins. Each photosystem has all the pigments (except one molecule of chlorophylla) forming a light harvesting system also called antennae. These pigments help to make photosynthesis more efficient by absorbing different wavelengths of light. The single chlorophyll a molecule forms the reaction centre. The reaction centre is different in both the photosystems. In PS I the reaction centre chlorophyll a has an absorption peak at 700 nm, hence is called P700, while in PS II it has absorption maxima at 680 nm, and is called P680.