Tag: metabolism, cell respiration, and photosynthesis

A competitive inhibitor is a reversible inhibition where the inhibitor competes with the substrate for the active site of an enzyme. While the inhibitor occupies the active site it prevents binding of the substrate to the enzyme. Many competitive inhibitors are compounds that resemble the substrate and combine with the enzyme to form an enzyme inhibitor complex, but without leading to catalysis. Even fleeting combinations of this type will reduce the efficiency of the enzyme. By taking into account the molecular geometry of inhibitors that resemble the substrate, we can reach conclusions about which parts of the normal substrate bind to the enzyme. Competitive inhibition can be analyzed quantitatively by steady-state kinetics.

Competitive inhibitors of enzymes compete with the active site of enzyme making them unavailable for the originally desired substrate. 

Succinate was placed in one of the most important cyclic pathways in metabolism, a collecting pool of catabolic and a starting point of many anabolic processes. Succinate is a product of substrate-level phosphorylation materialized in the citric acid cycle. It is involved in a macrophage-specific metabolic pathway generating and is also a downstream product of the α-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase complex, a heavily regulated multi-subunit complex.

Photosystems are functional and structural units of protein complexes involved in photosynthesis, that together carry out the primary photochemistry of photosynthesis: the absorption of light and the transfer of energy and electrons. There are 2 kinds of photosystems - photosystem I and II. In photosystem I, the reaction center is P-${ _7}$${ _0}$${ _0}$. In photosystem II, the reaction centers are P-${ _6}$${ _8}$${ _3}$. Thus, the correct answer is option A. 

P$ _{680}$ is the primary donor present in photosystem II. Structurally,  it's chlorophyll pigment dimer is present at the center of photosystem II. 680 suggests that the absorption is maximum at 680nm in red light. P$ _{680}$ or primary donor receives energy either by absorbing light or by excitation of electrons present in nearby chlorophyll. The excited electrons get captured by electron acceptor present in photosystem II, which is pheophytin and oxidized P$ _{680}$ is then reduced by electron generated from water during oxygenic photosynthesis.

Ferredoxin is the iron-containing, soluble compound in chloroplasts that helps in electron transportation and is the constituent of PS I which asses electrons to reductase complex that helps in the reduction of NADP$^+$ to NADPH which is a strong reducing agent.

Cyclic photophosphorylation is carried out by PS I only. This process takes place in stroma lamellae membrane. An external source of electrons is not required. Photolysis of water does not take place. There is no evolution of oxygen takes place because it is not connected with photolysis of water. Cyclic photophosphorylation produces ATP only. It does not involve the formation of NADPH. It operates under low light intensity, anaerobic conditions or when $CO _{2}$ availability is low. When only PS I is functional, the electron is circulated within the photosystem and the phosphorylation occurs, due to the cyclic flow of electrons. The membrane and lamella of the grana have both PS I and PS II, the stroma lamella membrane lack PS II as well as NADP reductase enzyme. The excited electron does not pass on to $NADP^{+}$ and is cycled back to the PS I complex through the electron transport chain.