Organisms That Can Use Photosynthesis to Produce Glucose
- Plants carry out photosynthesis to produce glucose.Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
Organisms that carry out photosynthesis begin the life cycle of all biological life on Earth. These organisms convert energy in sunlight into glucose and store it as various types of sugars. In this way, they produce chemical forms of energy that other organisms can use. They also convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, which is essential for respiration. These organisms include plants and various bacteria. - The most visible type of organisms that carry out photosynthesis, all plants reduce carbon dioxide to carbohydrate in the form of glucose and convert water into oxygen. These chemical reactions occur in chloroplasts, which are organelles in some plant cells. Chloroplasts provide plants with the energy and reduced carbon that they need to grow and develop, while plants provide chloroplasts with carbon dioxide, water, nitrogen, organic molecules and minerals. According to University of Illinois, evidence exists that suggests that chloroplasts used to live outside of plants as bacteria.
- Algae refers to a group of organisms, including the dinoflagellates, the euglenoids, yellow-green algae, golden-brown algae, diatoms, red algae, brown algae and green algae. Like plants, they convert water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and glucose in chloroplasts. According to University of Illinois, green algae could be the ancestor of land plants. Algae live in many fresh and salt water bodies as single-celled organisms or multicellular organisms such as kelp and seaweed. Phyloplankton, which consists of algae and bacteria, conducts most photosynthesis in the ocean.
- Cyanobacteria conduct photosynthesis in a way that is similar to photosynthesis in the chloroplasts of plants and algae. They have a type of chlorophyll and specialized protein complexes that allow them to absorb light energy. According to the University of Illinois, fossil evidence suggests that cyanobacteria existed more than three billion years ago and were the first organisms to produce oxygen. Scientists believe that cyanobacteria first evolved in water when the atmosphere contained no oxygen. In this way, cyanobacteria triggered the evolution of life on Earth.
- Purple bacteria cannot produce oxygen, but they conduct photosynthesis to produce glucose. They absorb infrared light and reflect other wavelengths of light so that they appear purple. Instead of water, some purple bacteria use hydrogen gas, while others obtain electrons from organic substances like succinate and malate or inorganic compounds like hydrogen sulfide.
- Green sulfur bacteria also do not change water into oxygen during photosynthesis because they don't have the ability to extract electrons from water. Instead, they use sulfur compounds and organic hydrogen. They use chlorosomes that are attached to the surface of their photosynthetic membrane to obtain light.
