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2.4F: Inclusion Bodies and Organelles Used for Photosynthesis

  • Page ID
    3132
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    Name three major types of photosynthetic bacteria and briefly describe where its photosynthetic system is located.
  • State the function of the following inclusion bodies:
    1. cyanophycin granules
    2. carboxysomes
    3. gas vacuoles
    4. polyhydroxybutyrate and glycogen granules
    5. magnetosomes
    6. volutin granules and sulfur granules
  • There are several major groups of photosynthetic bacteria: cyanobacteria, purple bacteria, green sulfur bacteria, green nonsulfur bacteria, heliobacteria, and acidobacteria. Comparing the cyanobacteria, the purple bacteria, and the green bacteria:

    The cyanobacteria carry out oxygenic photosynthesis, that is, they use water as an electron donor and generate oxygen during photosynthesis. The photosynthetic system is located in an extensive thylakoid membrane system that is lined with particles called phycobilisomes that contain light-harvesting phycobiliproteins.

    • Photograph of the cyanobacteria Anabaena.

    This page titled 2.4F: Inclusion Bodies and Organelles Used for Photosynthesis is shared under a CC BY 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Gary Kaiser via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.