Photosynthetic pigment

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Photosynthetic pigment

A photosynthetic pigment (accessory pigment; chloroplast pigment; antenna pigment) is a pigment

Pigment

A pigment is a material that changes the color of light it Reflection as the result of selective color absorption. This physical process differs from fluorescence, phosphorescence, and other forms of luminescence, in which the material itself emits light....
that is present in chloroplast

Chloroplast

Chloroplasts are organelles found in plant cells and other eukaryote organisms that conduct photosynthesis. Chloroplasts capture light energy to conserve Thermodynamic free energy in the form of Adenosine triphosphate and reduce NADP to NADPH through a complex set of processes called photosynthesis....
s or photosynthetic bacteria and captures the light

Light

Light, or visible light, is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength that is Visible spectrum to the human eye , or up to 380?750 nm. In the broader field of physics, light is sometimes used to refer to electromagnetic radiation of all wavelengths, whether visible or not....
energy necessary for photosynthesis

Photosynthesis

File:Seawifs global biosphere.jpgPhotosynthesis is a metabolic pathway that converts carbon dioxide into organic compounds, especially sugars, using the energy from sunlight....
.

lass="link1" onMouseover='showByLink("m1497872",this)' onMouseout='hide("m1497872")'href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Plant">Green plants

Plant

Plants are Life organisms belonging to the Kingdom Plantae. They include familiar organisms such as trees, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae....
have five closely-related photosynthetic pigments (in order of increasing polarity):

Chlorophyll a is the most common of the six, present in every plant that performs photosynthesis.

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Encyclopedia

A photosynthetic pigment (accessory pigment; chloroplast pigment; antenna pigment) is a pigment

Pigment

Chloroplast

Light

Photosynthesis

File:Seawifs global biosphere.jpgPhotosynthesis is a metabolic pathway that converts carbon dioxide into organic compounds, especially sugars, using the energy from sunlight....
.

Plants

Green plants

Plant

Carotene
Carotene

The term carotene is used for several related substances having the formula C40Hx, which are synthesized by plants but cannot be made by animals....
- an orange pigment
Xanthophyll
Xanthophyll

Xanthophylls are yellow pigments from the carotenoid group. Their molecular structure is based on carotenes; contrary to the carotenes, some hydrogen atoms are substituted by hydroxyl groups and/or some pairs of hydrogen atoms are substituted by oxygen atoms....
- a yellow pigment
Phaeophytin a
Phaeophytin

Phaeophytin is a grey pigment that appears in Chromatography of photosynthetic pigments. Phaeophytin has the same structure as chlorophyll; excluding the central magnesium ion, which is replaced by two protons....
- a gray-brown pigment
Phaeophytin b
Phaeophytin

Phaeophytin is a grey pigment that appears in Chromatography of photosynthetic pigments. Phaeophytin has the same structure as chlorophyll; excluding the central magnesium ion, which is replaced by two protons....
- a yellow-brown pigment
Chlorophyll a
Chlorophyll

Chlorophyll is a green pigment found in most plants, algae, and cyanobacteria. Its name is derived from Greek language: ?????? and f????? ....
- a blue-green pigment
Chlorophyll b
Chlorophyll

Chlorophyll is a green pigment found in most plants, algae, and cyanobacteria. Its name is derived from Greek language: ?????? and f????? ....
- a yellow-green pigment

Chlorophyll a is the most common of the six, present in every plant that performs photosynthesis. The reason that there are so many pigments is that each absorbs light more efficiently in a different part of the spectrum

Electromagnetic spectrum

The electromagnetic spectrum is the range of all possible electromagnetic radiation frequencies. The "electromagnetic spectrum" of an object is the characteristic distribution of electromagnetic radiation from that particular object....
. Chlorophyll a absorbs well at a wavelength of about 400-450 nm and at 650-700 nm; chlorophyll b at 450-500 nm and at 600-650 nm. Xanthophyll absorbs well at 400-530 nm. However, none of the pigments absorbs well in the green-yellow region, which is responsible for the abundant green we see in nature.

Bacteria

Like plants, the cyanobacteria

Cyanobacteria

Cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, blue-green bacteria or Cyanophyta, is a phylum of bacteria that obtain their energy through photosynthesis....
use water as an electron donor for photosynthesis and therefore liberate oxygen

Oxygen

Oxygen no O2 produced; 2) O2 produced, but absorbed in oceans & seabed rock; 3) O2 starts to gas out of the oceans, but is absorbed by land surfaces and formation of ozone layer; 4-5) O2 sinks filled and the gas accumulates]]...
; they also use chlorophyll as a pigment. In addition, most cyanobacteria use phycobiliprotein

Phycobiliprotein

Phycobiliproteins are water-soluble proteins present in cyanobacteria and certain algae that capture light energy which is then passed on to chlorophylls during photosynthesis....
s, water soluble pigments which occur in the cytoplasm of the chloroplast, to capture light energy and pass it on to the chlorophylls. (Some cyanobacteria, the prochlorophytes, use chlorophyll b instead of phycobilin.) It is thought that the chloroplasts in plants and algae all evolved from cyanobacteria.

Several other groups of bacteria use the bacteriochlorophyll

Bacteriochlorophyll

Bacteriochlorophylls are photosynthetic pigments that occur in various phototrophic bacterium. They are related to chlorophylls, which are the primary pigments in plants, algae, and cyanobacteria....
pigments (similar to the chlorophylls) for photosynthesis. Unlike the cyanobacteria, these bacteria do not produce oxygen; they typically use hydrogen sulfide

Hydrogen sulfide

Hydrogen sulfide is the chemical compound with the chemical formula Hydrogen2Sulfur. This colorless, toxic and flammable gas is partially responsible for the foul odor of egg and flatulence....
rather than water as the electron donor.

Recently, a very different pigment has been found in some marine ?-proteobacteria

Proteobacteria

The Proteobacteria are a major group of bacteria. They include a wide variety of pathogens, such as Escherichia, Salmonella, Vibrio, Helicobacter, and many other notable genera....
: proteorhodopsin

Proteorhodopsin

Proteorhodopsin is a photoactive retinylidene protein in marine bacterioplanktons. Just like the homology pigment bacteriorhodopsin found in some archaea, it consists of a transmembrane protein bound to a retinal molecule and functions as a light-driven proton pump....
. It is similar to and probably originated from bacteriorhodopsin (see below under archaea).

Algae

Green algae

The green algae are the large group of algae from which the embryophytes emerged. As such, they form a paraphyletic group, although the group including both green algae and embryophytes is monophyletic ....
, red algae

Red algae

The red algae are one of the oldest groups of eukaryotic algae, and also one of the largest, with about 5,000?6,000 species of mostly multicellular, ocean algae, including many notable seaweeds....
and glaucophyte

Glaucophyte

The glaucophytes, also known as glaucocystophytes or glaucocystids, are a small group of freshwater microscopic algae. Together with the red algae and Viridiplantae they form the Archaeplastida....
s all use chlorophylls. Red algae and glaucophytes also use phycobiliprotein

Phycobiliprotein

Archaea

Photosynthesis in archaea

Archaea

The Archaea are a group of single-celled microorganisms. A single individual or species from this domain is called an archaeon . Archaea, like bacteria, are prokaryotic....
is quite different from the systems in other domains of life. Photosynthetic archaea (the halobacteria

Halobacteria

In alpha taxonomy, the Halobacteria are a class of the Euryarchaeota, found in water saturated or nearly saturated with salt. They are also called halophiles, though this name is also used for other organisms which live in somewhat less concentrated salt water....
) use the pigment bacteriorhodopsin

Bacteriorhodopsin

Bacteriorhodopsin is a protein used by archaea, most notably halobacteria. It acts as a proton pump, i.e. it captures light energy and uses it to move protons across the membrane out of the cell....
which acts directly as a proton pump

Proton pump

A proton pump is an integral membrane protein that is capable of moving protons across the cell membrane of a cell , mitochondrion, or other subcellular compartment....
when exposed to light.