which of the pigments given below partcipate directly in photosynthesis?
Answers
chlorophyll a
One very important chlorophyll is chlorophyll a. All photosynthetic organisms (except a few groups of bacteria) have this as their main photosynthetic pigment. It is important because only it can participate directly in the light reactions, which convert solar energy to chemical energy..
Answer:
One very important chlorophyll is chlorophyll a. All photosynthetic organisms (except a few groups of bacteria) have this as their main photosynthetic pigment. It is important because only it can participate directly in the light reactions, which convert solar energy to chemical energy. But chlorophyll a is not the only pigment in chloroplasts important to photosynthesis. Other pigments can absorb light and transfer the energy to chlorophyll a, which then initiates the light reactions. We refer to these other pigments as accessory pigments. One of these is another form of chlorophyll, chlorophyll b. It is very similar to chlorophyll a, but different enough so that each has its own unique color. The former is blue-green, while the latter is yellow-green. So the point is, if chlorophyll b absorbs a photon of sunlight (this discrete packet of energy), it conveys the energy to chlorophyll a, which then acts as if it had directly absorbed the energy itself.
Many other chlorophylls exist along with the two we have just emphasized. For example, chlorophyll c is present in the brown algae, the dinoflagellates, and the diatoms. It is generally present along with chlorophyll a in most marine photosynthetic organisms. Another example is chlorophyll d, which is almost exclusive to the red algae; it acts as a minor pigment to chlorophyll a.