Limiting Factors Affecting the Rate of Photosynthesis

Vocabulary flashcards covering the limiting factors of photosynthesis (light intensity, carbon dioxide concentration, temperature), enzyme kinetics and structure, and the stages of photosynthesis in chloroplasts.

Limiting Factor

A factor that is in short supply and can restrict the rate of a process such as photosynthesis.

Light Intensity

A limiting factor of photosynthesis; at lower levels, the increase in rate is linear, but the graph eventually levels off when another factor becomes limiting.

Carbon Dioxide Concentration

The amount of $CO_2$ available in the air; as an essential reactant, increasing its concentration increases the rate of photosynthesis linearly at lower concentrations until another factor is in short supply.

Optimum Temperature

The temperature at which the rate of photosynthesis reaches its maximum value due to the greatest frequency of successful collisions between substrates and enzymes.

Denaturation

A structural change in enzymes caused by high temperatures that leads to a sharp decrease in the rate of photosynthesis.

Enzyme

A protein catalyst that speeds up chemical reactions without being consumed or permanently changed during the reaction.

Active Site

The specific region of an enzyme where the substrate binds to undergo a chemical reaction.

Enzyme-Substrate Complex

The intermediate structure formed when a substrate molecule temporarily binds to the active site of its specific enzyme.

Maltase

An enzyme named after its substrate that specifically catalyses the reaction to break down maltose.

Light Stage

The phase of photosynthesis occurring in the chloroplast that uses light energy and $H_2O$ to produce $O_2$, $ATP$, and $NADPH$.

Dark Stage

The phase of photosynthesis occurring in the chloroplast that utilizes $CO_2$, along with $ATP$ and $NADPH$ supplied by the light stage, to produce glucose.