Chlorophyll in Leaves

Chlorophyll-a is the most important photosensitive pigment for the photosynthesis process. It resides in the membranes of thylakoid disks of the chloroplasts. It is assisted by accessory pigments in the antenna arrays that absorb the light and direct the energy to chlorophyll-a pigment complexes. The accessory pigments broaden the wavelength range of the light absorption, but it is chlorophyll-a that accomplishes the final step of handing off energetic electrons in two photosystems called Photosystem I and Photosystem II. These energetic electrons accomplish the step of photophosphorylation to produce the vital energy currency, ATP, but in the non-cyclic electron transport which uses both photosystems, they also provide the energy for the synthesis of glucose and other carbohydrates.

叶绿素a是光合作用过程中最重要的光敏色素。它存在于叶绿体的类囊体膜中。在天线阵列中，辅助色素协助吸收光并把能量传递到叶绿素a色素复合物。辅助色素扩展了光吸收的波长范围，但正是叶绿素a完成了将能量电子传递到两个称为光系统I和光系统II的光系统中的最终步骤。这些能量电子完成了光磷酸化步骤，产生重要的能量货币ATP，但在非循环电子传递过程中，它们也提供了合成葡萄糖和其他碳水化合物所需的能量。