Introduction Our Main Sponser

Life in different organisms consists of a series of similar

processes such as respiration, excretion, etc. All these
processes are performed by living organisms to sustain their
life. All living organisms show some similarity in their
Advertisement
activities. They all have to eat and digest their food,
derive energy and remove waste materials from their
bodies. It is through such processes that living organisms
maintain their lives. The study of how they carry out these
processes is called physiology.
Our Sponser 2

Physiology
The branch of biology that is concerned with studying
the vital functions of plants and animals, such as
nutrition, respiration, reproduction and excretion is
called physiology.
Our Sponser 3

Nutrition

The word nutrition is derived from a Latin wordnutrire,

which means to nourish. It is the process of consuming
food. Our Sponser 4

The process by which organisms obtain energy (in the

form of food) for their growth, maintenance, and
repair is called nutrition.

All living organisms perform some or the other activity all Our Sponser 5

the time. To carry on these activities, energy is required.

This energy comes from the food that they eat.

Food
Today,
there
 have
Any material containing nutrients such as carbohydrates, been 22
visitors
proteins and fats, which are required by living organisms in (24 hits)
on this
order to obtain energy for growth and maintenance is called page!
food. Food contains substances that are usable for the
organism. Such substances are called nutrients. On the
basis of functions, nutrients can be divided into:

 Energy-yielding nutrients: carbohydrates and

fats.
 Body-building nutrients: proteins and some
minerals.
 Regulating nutrients: vitamins and minerals.

Organisms mainly exhibit two modes of nutrition:

1. Autotrophic
2. Heterotrophic

Autotrophic nutrition

The term autotroph is derived from two Greek

words, auto meaning ’self’ and troph meaning ’nutrition’ In
autotrophic mode of nutrition, an organism manufactures its
own food from simple inorganic raw materials in the
presence of sunlight. All the green plants and some bacteria
have autotrophic nutrition and are called autotrophs. All
autotrophs are, thus, producers of food.

Those green plants are autotrophic, which use raw materials

such as carbon dioxide, water, mineral salts and sunlight to
synthesize organic compounds in the form of sugars. This
mode of nutrition in green plants is mainly achieved by the
 process of photosynthesis. During the process of
photosynthesis, oxygen is released, which purifies air.

Chemical reaction of photosynthesis:

Sunlight
------------ 6O2
6CO2 + 12H2O + + 6H2O
--> C6H12O6
Chlorophyll Sugar

A few bacteria are chemosynthetic autotrophs. They do not

require light to prepare their own food. They make use of
carbon dioxide and other inorganic substance such as
hydrogen suplhide to prepare food.

Heterotrophic nutrition

The term heterotroph is derived from two greek

words: hetero meaning ’different’, and trophmeaning
’nutrition’ All animals and few plants (fungi and bacteria)
are heterotrophs. Heterotrophs, directly or indirectly,
depend upon autotrophs for their nutrition. Therefore,
heterotrophs are consumers. Most of the heterotrophs take
in complex materials as food and break them down or
decompose them into simpler forms.

Heterotrophic nutrition is different in lower and higher

organisms.

Lower heterotrophic organisms derive their food in two

modes:

1. Saprophytic nutrition
2. Parasitic nutrition
 Saprophytic nutrition:

The word ’Saprophytic’ is derived from the Greek

words Sapro meaning ’rotten’ and phyto refers to ’plants’ In
this mode, organisms obtain their food from dead and
decaying bodies such as rotten leaves, plants and decaying
organic matter.

Saprophytic nutrition

Fungi (mould, mushroom, yeast) and many bacteria are

saprophytic organisms. They break up complex organic
molecules into simpler ones. The simpler molecules are then
used by plants.

Parasitic nutrition:

Para refers to ’feeding beside’ and sites refers to grains.

In this mode of nutrition, organisms obtain their food from
living organisms. A parasite is literally one which lives on or
inside the body of another living organism (host) and
absorbs nutrients from the body of the host. It may
damage or even kill the host in the process.
For example: All viruses, several bacteria, some fungi such
as rust (Puccinia), smut (Ustilago) and plants such
as Cuscuta and Visum.

Pathogens

Parasites, which often produce diseases in the host

organisms are called pathogens. Examples: Viruses and
bacteria.

Holozoic nutrition

Holozoic nutrition means feeding on soild food.

OR

Feeding of complex organic matter by ingestion which

is subsequently digested and absorbed is called
holozoic nutrition.

Most of the animals have holozoic nutrition.

Examples: Amoeba, dog, frog, man.

Photosyntesis-->

The chemical process by which green plants synthesize organic compounds (glucose) from
carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) in the presence of sunlight is called photosynthesis.

It takes place in chloroplasts in green leaves. It is the

primary mode for the production of food in green plants.
The process of photosynthesis can be represented by the
following equation:
 6CO2 + 12H2O --------------> C6H12O6 + + 6H2O
Chlorophyll
6O2

Here, the energy is trapped by plants and is converted into

chemical energy.

The process of photosynthesis in plant leaf

Chlorophyll:

It is the green pigment present in green plants. Chlorophyll

is localized in small bodies known as chloroplasts.
Chloroplasts are photosynthetic organelles of the cell.

The chlorophyll consists of:

1. Chlorophyll-a
2. Chlorophyll-b
3. Xanthophyll
4. Carotene
 Chlorophyll-a (blue-green pigment) and chlorophyll-b
(yellow-green pigment) are common in most of the plants.
These are the pigments, which help in photosynthesis.
Chemically, chlorophylls are porphyrins. Other porphyrins
are haemoglobin and other respiratory pigments. Chlorophyll
contains magnesium. This is similar to that of haemoglobin,
which contains iron. Chlorophyll is present in chloroplasts –
the photosynthetic organelles of palnts. Xanthophyll is a
yellow-coloured pigment whereas carotene is an orange-
coloured pigment.

Light:

Sun is the natural source of light energy. Photosynthesis

can also occur under artificial light. The rate of
photosynthesis is highest in red light.

Conversion of solar energy into chemical energy

Solar energy is trapped by the photosynthetic pigments

(chlorophyll) in plants and is converted into chemical energy
(carbohydrates). Plants fix solar energy into chemical
energy and this chemical energy is consumed as food by
other living beings. So, all animals indirectly derive their
nutrition from plants. The entire process of photosynthesis
involves entrapping, converting and storing solar energy.

Chloroplasts

Chloroplasts are green-coloured plastids (in

Greek, chloro means ’green’) containing the pigments
chlorophyll-a and chlorophyll-b, DNA and RNA. They are
the most common plastids in plants and are very important,
since they perform function of photosynthesis.

Chloroplasts are homogeneously distributed in plant cells.

These are mobile and show active and passive movements.
Generally, chloroplasts are biconvex, but may be found in
varying shapes such as filamentous, saucer-shaped,
spheroid, ovoid, discoid, club-shaped, etc. Their size and
number depends upon the species.
 Site of
photosynthesis in plants

Essential raw materials for photosynthesis

The essential raw materials for photosynthesis are:

 Carbon dioxide (CO2)

 Water

Carbon dioxide (CO2):

Carbon dioxide forms only about 0.32 per cent of the total
atmosphere. The source of carbon dioxide in atmosphere is
respiration, microbial decomposition and combustion (of
wood, coal, petroleum and natural gas).

Green plants utilize carbon dioxide from the atmosphere

during photosynthesis, whereas aquatic plants make use of
the carbon dioxide dissolved in water. In day time, when
light is available, plants fix carbon dioxide during
photosynthesis. But at night, due to the absence of light,
no photosynthesis takes place. Plants utilize starch (in
catabolism) and release carbon dioxide. The rate of
photosynthesis remains low in the shade and during early
morning and late evening hours. During this time, carbon
dioxide released in respiration may be sufficient for
photosynthesis.

This stage, when no net carbon dioxide uptake is done by

plants, is termed as compensation point.

Water:

During photosynthesis, plants absorb water through roots

with the help of xylem. Along with water, plants also
absorb minerals and salts, which also help in
photosynthesis. Out of the total water absorbed by plants,
only one per cent is used in photosynthesis.
 Mechanism of photosynthesis

Photosynthesis takes place in the green leaves of a plant.

Leaves are flat, thin and broad in structure, which are

modified for two functions: photosynthesis and
transpiration.
The upper surface of the leaf is called the upper epidermis
and the lower surface is called the lower epidermis. The
epidermis has a wax-like covering called the cuticle layer.
There are a number of openings on the lower epidermis of
the leaf called the stomata. Each stoma is guarded by two
guard cells. The stomata open during daytime and close
during the night. Mesophyll tissues in leaves are present
between upper and lower epidermis.

Mesophyll tissues are composed of palisade cells.

Photosynthesis takes place in the palisade cells. The
palisade cells may have 300 or more chloroplasts. Water
passes into the palisade cells by osmosis from the vein and
mid-rib of leaves. Carbon dioxide diffuses in from the
atmosphere through the stomata. Sunlight is absorbed by
the chlorophyll. By using sunlight, carbon dioxide and water
are combined in the chloroplast with the help of a number
of enzymes to produce sugar. Sugar is then converted into
starch for storage purposes. During the process of
metabolism, starch is distributed to various parts of the
plant through phloem. The oxygen gas produced during
photosynthesis diffuses out to the atmosphere through the
stomata of the leaf.
 The photosynthetic reaction can be summarized as:
sunlight
CO2 + H2O --------------> Organic matter (starch) + O2
green plants

It was observed that photosynthesis not only requires light,

but other materials to proceed. Earlier, it was thought that
carbon dioxide was split into carbon and oxygen. Carbon
combines with water to form glucose.
6CO2 + 6H2O --------------> C6H12O6 + 6O2

The process of photosynthesis occurs in two steps – light

reaction and dark reaction.

Light reaction or photochemical phase

The photosynthetic pigments absorb light energy in the

form of photons. Chlorophyll when excited emits electron
which move to nearby electron acceptor molecules.
 i. Chlorophylls and accessory pigments absorb light
of specific wavelengths.
i.
ii. Photolysis of water takes place. The oxidized
chlorophyll molecule takes an electron from
water which splits to release oxygen.

i. H2O ----> 2H+ + O2 + e–

i.
ii. NADP+ gets reduced to NADPH in the presence of
the enzyme, ferredoxin - NADP - reductase.
Oxygen released during photosynthesis comes
from water.

Dark reaction or thermochemical phase

NADPH and ATP production takes place in light reaction.

This is utilized by stroma of chloroplast to synthesize
carbohydrate from carbon dioxide. This is dark reaction.

It occurs in stroma of chloroplasts. Here, carbon from

carbon dioxide is utilized to form carbohydrates where
products of light reactions are used.

The path of carbon was demonstrated by Melvin Calvin

(1954).

Calvin cycle regenerates ADP and NADP required for the

light reaction. The dark reaction is slow. It does not
regenerate adequate ADP and NADP and hence, is a ’rate
limiting’ step.
 Calvin cycle

Factors influencing photosynthesis

Factors influencing photosynthesis are:

Light intensity and quality: Plants respire, i.e. they take in

oxygen and release carbon dioxide in the absence of light.
Sufficient light is essential for photosynthesis.

The rate of photosynthesis increases with the increasing

intensity of light. This continues till carbon dioxide becomes
 a limiting factor. At a certain point, the plant becomes
light-saturated. Thus, light is no longer a limiting factor in
determining the rate of photosynthesis. Now concentration
of carbon dioxide matters.

The photosynthetic rate is also influenced by light. Blue and

red regions of the visible light are photosynthetically most
effective.

Availability of carbon dioxide: Carbon dioxide enters

through the stomata of leaves in terrestrial plants. As
stomata close, the availability of carbon dioxide for
photosynthesis decreases and the photosynthetic rate is
reduced to zero. In aquatic plants (submerged), carbon
dioxide directly enters in the form of bicarbonates or
carbonates through the epidermis and reaches the
photosynthetic cells.

Carbon dioxide acts as a limiting factor under field

conditions during clear summer days, when plants are
provided with adequate water.

Availability of water: Water becomes a limiting factor in

field conditions during prolonged drought periods and during
hot weather. Reduction of water results in closing of
stomata which affects photosynthesis. Decrease in water
results in dehydration due to which enzyme activity is
hampered.

Temperature: During cool days temperature becomes a

limiting factor. Also increase in temperature above 30o C
results in decreased photosynthesis. Changes in temperature
influence enzyme-controlled reactions. C4 plants show higher
temperature optimum for photosynthesis than the C3 plants.

Internal factors: Age of leaf, its anatomy and chlorophyll

content also affect photosynthesis. The photosynthetic
activity is maximum when leaf is fully expanded. But it
decreases with the age of leaf. The number of stomata,
their opening and closing, venation of leaf, volume of
intercellular spaces influence the rate of photosynthesis.

Generally, chlorophyll content is not a limiting factor for

photosynthesis. This is evident from the less chlorophyll
content in sunplants to have high rate of photosynthesis.

=> Do you also want a homepage for free? T