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CYANOBACTERIA AND PHOTOSYNTHESIS

Q:

If bacteria are prokaryotes and lack organelles such as chloroplasts and mitochondria, then how can they photosynthesize and perform cellular respiration?

Cyanobacteria are aquatic and photosynthetic, that is, they live in the water, and can manufacture their own food. Because of this, cyanobacteria are often called "blue-green algae". This does not reflect any relationship between the cyanobacteria and other organisms called algae. Cyanobacteria are relatives of the prokaryotic bacteria, not eukaryotes, and it is only the chloroplast in eukaryotic algae to which the cyanobacteria are related. Because they are bacteria, they are quite small and usually unicellular, though they often grow in colonies large enough to see. They have the distinction of being the oldest known fossils, more than 3.5 billion years old, in fact! It may surprise you then to know that cyanobacteria are still around; they are one of the largest and most important groups of bacteria on earth. Many ancient oil deposits are attributed to the activity of cyanobacteria. They are also important providers of nitrogen fertilizer in the cultivation of rice and beans. The cyanobacteria have also been tremendously important in shaping the course of evolution and ecological change throughout earth's history. The oxygen atmosphere that we depend on was generated by numerous cyanobacteria. Before then, the atmosphere had a very different chemistry, unsuitable for life as we know it today. The other great contribution of the cyanobacteria is the origin of plants. The chloroplast with which plants make food for themselves is actually a cyanobacterium living within the plant's cells. Sometime in the late Proterozoic, or in the early Cambrian Periods, cyanobacteria began to take up residence within certain eukaryote cells, making food for the eukaryote host in return for a home. This event is known as endosymbiosis, and is also the origin of the eukaryotic mitochondrion. You already know about the electron transport chains found in the membranes of both chloroplasts (for photosynthesis) and mitochondria (for cellular respiration). Cyanobacteria also have electron transport chains within both their plasma membrane and their highly folded internal membranes, called thylakoids. In the thylakoids, a blue pigment molecule called phycocyanin captures light for photosynthesis (like green chlorophyll does for green plants). Photosynthesis in cyanobacteria uses water as an electron donor and produces oxygen as a by-product. Carbon dioxide is used to form carbohydrates via the Calvin cycle in the cytoplasm of the cyanobacteria. As for cellular respiration, the cyanobacteria use the electron transport chains in their plasma membrane to perform those reactions to break down sugars into carbon dioxide, water and recharge ATP.

READING QUESTIONS: 1. Algae are photosynthetic eukaryotic cells. They have chloroplast organelles that allow them to use photosynthesis to make their own food. Bacteria are prokaryotes which do not have a nucleus or other membrane-bound organelles. Yet, Cyanobacteria are often called blue-green algae. Why is this so? 2. Based on this reading, where do most cyanobacteria live? 3. What does unicellular mean? 4. If cyanobacteria are so small, how is it possible that we can often see them with the naked eye? 5. What are the oldest known fossils of? 6. Some ancient oil deposits were once large masses of .

7. What are some contributions cyanobacteria have made in lifes history and human history?

8. What is endosymbiosis, and how does it explain the origin of the chloroplasts and mitochondria in eukaryotic cells?

9. Using your textbook to help you, sketch AND LABEL the general structures of a chloroplast and a mitochondrion. NEXT, indicate on your sketches the location of the electron transport chains in each.

10. What is phycocyanin and what does it do?

11. Explain how cyanobacteria perform photosynthesis and cellular respiration without organelles: