Photosynthesis in algae and bacteria

Algae is a range from multicellular forms like kelp to microscopic, single-celled organisms. Although they are not as complex as land plants, photosynthesis takes place biochemically the same way. Very much like plants, algae have chloroplasts and chlorophyll, but various accessory pigments are present in some algae such as phycoerythrin in red algae (rhodophytes) , resulting in a wide variety of colours. All algae produce oxygen, and many are autotrophic. However, some are heterotrophic, relying on materials produced by other organisms.

Photosynthetic bacteria do not have chloroplasts (or any membrane-bound organelles), instead, photosynthesis takes place directly within the cell. Cyanobacteria contain thylakoid membranes very similar to those in chloroplasts and are the only prokaryotes that perform oxygen-generating photosynthesis, in fact chloroplasts are now considered to have evolved from an endosymbiotic bacterium, which was also an ancestor of and later gave rise to cyanobacterium. The other photosynthetic bacteria have a variety of different pigments, called bacteriochlorophylls, and do not produce oxygen. Some bacteria such as Chromatium, oxidize hydrogen sulfide instead of water for photosynthesis, producing sulfur as waste.

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