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Free oxygen is produced in the biosphere through photolysis (light-driven oxidation and splitting) of water during photosynthesis in cyanobacteria, green algae, and plants. During oxidative phosphorylation in cellular respiration, oxygen is reduced to water, thus closing the biological water-oxygen redox cycle.
In nature, singlet oxygen is commonly formed from water during photosynthesis, using the energy of sunlight. [38] It is also produced in the troposphere by the photolysis of ozone by light of short wavelength [ 39 ] and by the immune system as a source of active oxygen. [ 40 ]
In these tissues, hemoglobin absorbs unneeded oxygen as an antioxidant, and regulates iron metabolism. [12] Excessive glucose in the blood can attach to hemoglobin and raise the level of hemoglobin A1c. [13] Hemoglobin and hemoglobin-like molecules are also found in many invertebrates, fungi, and plants. [14]
In plants, algae, and cyanobacteria, photosynthesis releases oxygen. This oxygenic photosynthesis is by far the most common type of photosynthesis used by living organisms. Some shade-loving plants (sciophytes) produce such low levels of oxygen during photosynthesis that they use all of it themselves instead of releasing it to the atmosphere. [12]
Heme D is the site for oxygen reduction to water of many types of bacteria at low oxygen tension. [24] Heme S is related to heme B by having a formyl group at position 2 in place of the 2-vinyl group. Heme S is found in the hemoglobin of a few species of marine worms.
In oxygenic photosynthesis, the first electron donor is water, creating oxygen (O 2) as a by-product. In anoxygenic photosynthesis , various electron donors are used. Cytochrome b 6 f and ATP synthase work together to produce ATP ( photophosphorylation ) in two distinct ways.
Oxygenic photosynthesis can be performed by plants and cyanobacteria; cyanobacteria are believed to be the progenitors of the photosystem-containing chloroplasts of eukaryotes. Photosynthetic bacteria that cannot produce oxygen have only one photosystem, which is similar to either PSI or PSII.
Photosynthetic water splitting (or oxygen evolution) is one of the most important reactions on the planet, since it is the source of nearly all the atmosphere's oxygen. Moreover, artificial photosynthetic water-splitting may contribute to the effective use of sunlight as an alternative energy-source.