Chemotrophic Respiration and Photosynthesis

Cellular respiration is the ability of a cell in an organism to metabolize chemicals in the production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the main energy molecule of the cell. There are two forms of cellular respiration. Chemotrophic respiration, which is used by animals and phototrophic respiration (a.k.a. photosynthesis) used by plants and fungi. Chemotrophic respiration requires oxygen to efficiently make ATP and gives off carbon dioxide as a waste product. Photosynthesis requires carbon dioxide and gives off oxygen as a waste product. Further analysis of these two types of respiration will show why these processes are related and how they differ.

Photosynthesis is the process in which plants/fungi process light photons and carbon dioxide into energy in the form of ATP and NADPH. This energy is then plugged into Calvin cycle and the biosynthesis of starch and sucrose. Photosynthesis is mainly synthesized in the chloroplast of the cell. The Chloroplast is made of three membranes which help to organize and regulate photosynthesis by creating specialized regions for the metabolic pathway to produce products and reactants. The inner membrane contains the stroma. The stroma contains thylakoids and the enzymes specific to the glycolate pathway. The thylakoid is made up of stack of grana and these grana are interconnected. These stacks of thylakoid layer together forming lumen which is semipermeable to light photons and is the proton gradient that allows for the synthesis of ATP.

The absorption of light in the form of photons through the thylakoid membrane into the lumen is the first step of photosynthesis. This photons absorbed through the lumen go through photochemical reduction in which they are absorbed into pigments such as chlor...

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...tabolism of these molecules are spontaneous and does not require light to begin. Photosynthesis requires that chlorophyll is present to process light and at the same time is dependent on light therefore would not occur without one or both. It is obvious that they are both reliant on the other, without photosynthesis to produce the oxygen chemotrophs breathe in order to metabolize glucose for energy.

Works Cited

1. Hardin, J., Bertoni, G., Kleinsmith, L. J., & Becker, W. M. (2012). Becker's world of the cell. Boston: Benjamin Cummings.

2. Photosynthesis vs Respiration - Difference and Comparison | Diffen. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.diffen.com/difference/Photosynthesis_vs_Respiration.

3. Mueller-Cajar, Oliver, et al. "Structure And Function Of The AAA+ Protein Cbbx, A Red-Type Rubisco Activase." Nature 479.7372 (2011): 194-199. MEDLINE. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.