Use your textbook to help you answer these questions Remember that a pigment app

Question

Use your textbook to help you answer these questions Remember that a pigment appears a certain color because it REFLECTS (i.e., does not absorb) that wavelength. What wavelength range would be REFLECTED by each of these pigments? Chlorophyll a: nm Chlorophyll b: nm Carotene: nm Xanthophyll: nm At approximately what two wavelengths would you expect the greatest absorbance values for: Chlorophyll a: nm and nm Chlorophyll b: nm and nm Carotene: nm and nm We know that most pigments are found in the chloroplasts of eukaryotic cells. Specifically WHERE is chlorophyll located in the chloroplast? Some PROKARYOTES are photosynthetic. Predict where the pigments might be located in these cells.

Explanation / Answer

Answer:

2. a. Chlorophyll a: 450 - 630 nm

Chlorophyll b: 500 - 650 nm

Carotene: 525 - 750/780 nm

Xanthophyll: 570 - 590 nm

b. Chlorophyll a: 430 nm and 660 nm

Chlorophyll b: 450 nm and 640 nm

Carotene: 450 nm and 478 nm

c. The chlorophyll molecules sit inside each thylakoid membrane of the chloroplasts.

d. Photosynthetic pigments are found on a thylakoid membrane, but in prokaryotes, the thylakoid membrane is basically a super-infolded cell membrane.

Explanation:

As you know, in our more familiar eukaryotes (like plants), photosynthesis takes place in organelles called Chloroplasts, inside of which there are smaller, enclosed, highly-folded, pancake-like organelles called thylakoids. Chlorophyll is embedded in the membrane of these thylakoids.

Prokaryotic cells (like cyanobacteria) are much like free-living Chloroplasts...and in fact the endosymbiotic theory suggests that all chloroplasts actually once were free-living prokaryotes.

In prokaryotes, instead of having smaller, mini-versions of chloroplasts, they use their own highly-folded plasma membranes/cell membranes to do the job. Folds in these membranes are called thylakoids - just like they are in the chloroplast - and their surface is called the thylakoid membrane. Just like in the chloroplast, the thylakoid membrane is where all the photosynthetic pigments/complexes are found, including the chlorophylls.

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