Every day we witness the great energy that sunlight contains. Every time in summer we burn for not having used sunscreen, every time we feel the heat rise from the asphalt in a hot day or, without going any further, in each plant that grows directly or indirectly touched by the sun.
The human organism cannot benefit from sunlight in the same way as plants. What do they have to miss us to be able to take advantage of solar energy? Two words: photosynthetic pigments. If you want to learn more about the function of the photosynthetic pigments of the plants, accompany us in this ecology article in which you will see a summary about What are photosynthetic pigments, their types and examples.
What are photosynthetic pigments
To talk about these biological pigments, more specifically Vegetable pigments With a concrete function, before it is convenient to talk about the light. The light is an electromagnetic wave and the visible light, which is what our eyes can capture and that is formed by the colored spectrum of the rainbow, it is only a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum, which is between the wavelengths of 700 and 400 nm.
Among these lengths we have The red lightthe least energy, and The blue lightthe shortest wavelength and, therefore, also the most energetic. Sunlight seems white a priori, but when we make it cross a prism it is divided into all components of the visible spectrum. All this explanation is necessary because most substances, when they receive sunlight, absorb some wavelengths and reflect others. We see the things of the color of the wavelength that they reflect, while the rest of the energy is absorbed as heat.
Besides, Photosynthetic pigments are molecules that have the unique ability to transform the energy of light into chemical energy, thus forming the basis of the process of Photosynthesis. AND Where are photosynthetic pigments? We can find these specialized pigments inside plant cells, specifically in chloroplasts, retained and fixed to them.
Characteristics of photosynthetic pigments
The main characteristic of photosynthetic pigments is its ability to absorb light, which the photosynthesis process will turn into chemical energy and sugars assimilable by the plant or photosynthetic organism, since in addition to those of plants, there are also the photosynthetic pigments of algae and some bacteria.
The different Photosynthetic pigments colors They give them the ability to absorb and reflect different wavelengths of light, so that photosynthetic organisms that have greater diversity of them can absorb energy than a greater variety of light types.
So what phase of Photosynthesis Photosynthetic pigments intervene? In the first one, which is called light phase And it is the one in which the pigments capture the light and absorb the energy of the photons in this. It will be the rest of the photosynthesis process that ends up turning this into the nutrients and energy necessary for the photosynthetic organism.
Types and examples of photosynthetic pigments
There are several types of photosynthetic pigments, although the main ones in land plants are two: chlorophyll and carotenoid photosynthetic pigments. Thus, this is the Classification of photosynthetic pigments:
Chlorophyll
There are 5 types of Chlorophyll: A, B, CYDin addition to the Bacterioclorophyla that some prokaryotes have, and are the pigment of Green color. Chlorophyll A is the only one capable of convert light into chemical energybeing essential for photosynthesis, which is why the other pigments involved accessory pigments are called, including other chlorophylls and other photosynthetic pigments. These accessory pigments, however, are also important, since they allow access to a greater variety of light wavelengths to take advantage of. All photosynthetic plants, algae and cyanobacteria contain this essential chlorophyll, while chlorophyll B, also capable of absorbing light, but not transforming it into energy, only have green plants and algae with some cyanobacteria.
Here you can learn more about what chlorophyll and its types are.
Carotenoids
Unlike chlorophylls, which are green, carotenoids are Red, yellow and orange colorssince they absorb violet light and greenish blue. In addition to absorbing light, they fulfill the important function of giving fruits or seeds their bright colors, which help attract animals and favor dispersion. Another vital function that they fulfill is to eliminate the surplus of energy that the plant receives from the sun, absorbing it and dissipating it as heat. They can be classified into two subtypes: carotenes and xantofilas. The former give yellow, orange or red colors, while the latter are always yellow.
Ficobilins
Ficobilins are photosynthetic pigments that can only be found in Red algae and cyanobacteria. They are of great importance in the field of research, using chemical labels by Fluorescence characteristic they emit when they are exposed to intense light.
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