Photosynthesis 1

Photosynthesis – the process via which plants use simple inorganic molecules in the presence of sunlight to make complex organic food.

Worded equation: carbon dioxide + water >>>>> glucose + water

Chemical Equation: 6CO2 + 6H2O >>>>> C6H12O6 + 6O2

The above reaction can only occur in the presence of sunlight, chloropyll and enzymes.

Photosynthesis is also know as autotrophic nutrition. Before we go any further let us contrast autotrophic nutrition and heterotrophic nutrition.


Autotrophic nutrition
Includes all plants and some protists (those containing chlorophyll)
Uses inorganic CO2 and H2O to make complex food (glucose)
Energy source from sunlight
Building up process: photosynthesis

Heterotrophic nutrition
Includes animals, some protists, fungi, bacteria, viruses
Uses complex organic molecules (fats, proteins, carbohydrates)as food
Energy source from food
Process: intake of food, digestion and assimilation

There are different categories of heterotrophic nutrition and these include:
1. Holozoic: digestion assimilation and absorption occurs inside the body. Eg. Most animals and some protists such as the Amoeba sp.
2. Saprophytic: digestion occurs outside the body as enzymes are passed out from the body onto the food.
3. Parasitic: organisms which exhibit this type of nutrition, usually has no digestive system as they obtain digested food from other organisms (host).


Photosynthesis occurs in chlorophyll molecules and has 2 stages:

1. The light dependent (light) stage: UV rays from the sun splits water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. The oxygen is released into the atmosphere as waste via the stomata. While the hydrogen is used in the light independent stage.

2. The light independent (dark) stage: hydrogen is chemically combined with carbon dioxide in the presence of enzymes to form glucose. (This can occur with or without light as it occurs independent of light).

N.B.
1.The UV rays from the sun breaks the bonds that holds the atoms in a water molecule together thus separating them.
2. The enzymes are need to increase the rate of reaction so it can occur in a timely manner.

What happens to glucose after it is made?

The fate of glucose after it is made:
1. Some is used in respiration to provide energy need by the plants.
2. Some is converted to sucrose for transport around the plant.
3. Some is used to make other substances need for the plants survival eg. hormones, vitamins, lipids, proteins ect.
4. The excess is converted to starch for storage.

Classification

The Classification is system is set up so living organisms can be grouped according to their similarities and separated according to the differences.

The classification tree is the system setup to do this. I can be seen below:
> Kingdom
> Phylum
> Class
> Order
> Family
> Genus
> Species

How do we remember this order? Here are two acronyms to help;

King
Phillip
Can
Only
Find his
Green
slippers

OR

King
Phillip
Came
Over
For
Good
spaghetti

Every Living thing has a common name (the name we call them on a daily basis)as well as a scientific name (the name used formally by scientists)

How do we write the scientific name of organisms?

The scientific name of an organism is obtained from its genus and species category.
Whenever writing the scientific name of an organism, it is proper to capitalize the first letter in the genus and put all of the species in lowercase. Additionally, the entire term would be italicized (if typed) or underlined (if hand-written).

here is an example: people are reffed to commonly as humans but the scientific name is Homo sapiens

There is a 5 kingdom system (YES 5) that is used to group or classify all living things. It includes:
1. Viruses
2. Bacteria
3. Protoctist/Protists
4. Fungi
5. Animalia/Animals
6. Plantae/Plants

PS. I know you counted 6 kingdoms above, however, viruses are not classified among living organisms because it is made up of particles and not cells.

Check out this youtube video it will show organism in each kingdom as they move
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_r2uhvYIyM

Characteristics of Living things

Biology can be defined as the science that studies living organisms and how they interact with their environment.

All living things must carry out all of the following:
Respiration: - releases energy from food for use by cells.

Excretion: - removal of waste products of chemical reactions (metabolism).

Movement: - animals move from place to place to avoid predators and to search for food, while plants move parts of themselves to prevent damage and during growth.

Irritability (response to stimulus): - sense changes in their environment and respond to them. This helps them to detect danger and increases their chance of survival.

Nutrition (feeding): - plants make their own food while animals obtain food from their environment. This provides energy for them to carryout all the important processes in their body.

Development and Growth: - is a permanent increase in size and complexity, which ensures organisms have systems in place to perform specific functions.

Reproduction: - making of new offspring to ensure continuation of the species. This can be done sexually or asexually.

N.B. To help you remember, the characteristics spell the acronym R.E.I.N.D.e.R.