Photosynthesis WITHOUT THE SUN

TL;DR

Scientists have found photosynthesizing bacteria living in the deep ocean, where there is no sunlight, challenging our understanding of where photosynthesis can occur.

Transcript

thanks to brilliant for supporting this episode of scishow go to brilliant.org scishow to learn how you can take your stem skills to the next level we're all taught in school how plants eat light the short version they take carbon dioxide and water and thanks to some energy from sunlight they rearrange the atoms to make oxygen and sugar we call thi... Read More

Key Insights

• 🤢 Photosynthesis can occur in lightless environments, as demonstrated by the discovery of photosynthesizing bacteria in deep-sea hydrothermal vents.
• 🙂 Green sulfur bacteria, known for their ability to photosynthesize, can adapt to extremely low-light conditions and survive using geothermal light.
• 🙂 The discovery challenges the traditional view that photosynthesis can only occur in light-filled environments and raises the possibility of light-eating life existing elsewhere in the universe.
• 🙂 Geothermal light from hydrothermal vents provides enough energy for photosynthesizing bacteria to generate their own food.
• 🙂 Green sulfur bacteria likely drifted down from light-filled environments to the deep sea, where they found the only reliable source of light.
• 🙂 The growth of photosynthesizing bacteria is significantly slower in light-limited conditions compared to bacteria in light-filled environments.
• 👨‍🔬 Further research is needed to determine how long ago the photosynthesizing bacteria made the transition to living in deep-sea hydrothermal vents.

Questions & Answers

Q: How have scientists discovered photosynthesizing bacteria in the deep sea without sunlight?

Scientists were exploring a deep-sea hydrothermal vent when they discovered a new species of green sulfur bacteria, which are known to photosynthesize. Despite the lack of sunlight, the bacteria are able to survive and grow using the geothermal light emitted by the hydrothermal vent.

Q: What is the significance of this discovery in terms of our understanding of photosynthesis?

This discovery challenges the previous belief that photosynthesis can only occur in light-filled environments. It shows that photosynthesizing bacteria can adapt to lightless conditions and opens up the possibility of light-eating life existing in other lightless environments or even on other planets.

Q: How do green sulfur bacteria generate their own food through photosynthesis?

Green sulfur bacteria have photosynthetic pigments called bacteriochlorophyll, similar to those used by plants to capture energy from sunlight. These pigments are located inside chlorosomes, which efficiently funnel light to them. Using this light energy, the bacteria rearrange atoms from carbon dioxide and water to produce oxygen and sugar.

Q: How do photosynthesizing bacteria survive in deep-sea environments without sunlight?

While there is no sunlight in deep-sea environments, there is a small amount of geothermal light emitted by hot magma rising from the Earth's crust. The highly efficient chlorosomes of green sulfur bacteria allow them to extract enough energy from this geothermal light to survive, although growth is slow in these light-limited conditions.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Scientists have discovered a new species of photosynthesizing bacteria in a deep-sea hydrothermal vent with no sunlight.

• These bacteria, known as green sulfur bacteria, are able to generate their own food using light from geothermal light emitted by hydrothermal vents.

• The discovery challenges our previous understanding of where photosynthesis can occur and raises questions about the potential for light-eating life on other planets or in other lightless environments.