Surf Wiki
Save to docs
general/tetrapyrroles

From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Chlorophyll b

Soluble in methanol

'*Chlorophyll b''' is a form of chlorophyll. Chlorophyll b helps in photosynthesis by absorbing light energy. It is more soluble than chlorophyll *a'' in polar solvents because of its carbonyl group. Its color is green, and it primarily absorbs blue light.

In land plants, the light-harvesting antennae around photosystem II contain the majority of chlorophyll b. Hence, in shade-adapted chloroplasts, which have an increased ratio of photosystem II to photosystem I, there is a higher ratio of chlorophyll b to chlorophyll a.{{cite journal | doi-access= free

Structure of chlorophyll b molecule showing the long hydrocarbon tail

Biosynthesis

Main article: Chlorophyllide

The Chlorophyll b biosynthetic pathway utilizes a variety of enzymes. In most plants, chlorophyll is derived from glutamate and is synthesised along a branched pathway that is shared with heme and siroheme. The initial steps incorporate glutamic acid into 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA); two molecules of ALA are then reduced to porphobilinogen (PBG), and four molecules of PBG are coupled, forming protoporphyrin IX.

Chlorophyll synthase is the enzyme that completes the biosynthesis of chlorophyll b by catalysing the reaction :chlorophyllide b + phytyl diphosphate \rightleftharpoons chlorophyll b + diphosphate This forms an ester of the carboxylic acid group in chlorophyllide b with the 20-carbon diterpene alcohol phytol.

References

References

  1. {{CRC90
  2. "Photosynthesis pigments".
  3. (1997). "Genetic analysis of chlorophyll biosynthesis". Annual Review of Genetics.
  4. Battersby, A. R.. (2000). "Tetrapyrroles: the Pigments of Life. A Millennium review". Nat. Prod. Rep..
  5. (2007). "Ciba Foundation Symposium 180 - the Biosynthesis of the Tetrapyrrole Pigments".
  6. Willows, Robert D.. (2003). "Biosynthesis of chlorophylls from protoporphyrin IX". Natural Product Reports.
  7. (2002). "Pre-Loading of Chlorophyll Synthase with Tetraprenyl Diphosphate is an Obligatory Step in Chlorophyll Biosynthesis". Biological Chemistry.
  8. (2004). "Recent advances in chlorophyll biosynthesis and breakdown in higher plants". Plant Molecular Biology.
  9. (2007). "Recent advances in chlorophyll biosynthesis". Photosynthesis Research.
Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

tetrapyrroles photosynthetic-pigments
Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Chlorophyll b — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report