{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2023}} {{Short description|Organisms that use light and inorganic carbon to produce organic materials}} [[File:Winogradsky-Säule- Anoxygene Phototrophe Bakterien.jpg|thumb|[[Winogradsky column]] showing Photoautotrophs in purple and green]] '''Photoautotrophs''' are [[organism]]s that can utilize [[light energy]] from [[sunlight]], and [[chemical element|element]]s (such as [[carbon]]) from [[inorganic compound]]s, to produce [[organic material]]s needed to sustain their own [[metabolism]] (i.e. [[autotrophy]]). Such biological activities are known as [[photosynthesis]], and examples of such organisms include [[plant]]s, [[algae]] and [[cyanobacteria]].
[[Eukaryotic]] photoautotrophs absorb photonic energy through the [[photopigment]] [[chlorophyll]] (a [[porphyrin]] [[derivative]]) in their [[endosymbiont]] [[chloroplast]]s, while [[prokaryotic]] photoautotrophs use chlorophylls and [[bacteriochlorophyll]]s present in free-floating [[cytoplasm]]ic [[thylakoid]]s. Plants, algae, and cyanobacteria perform [[oxygenic photosynthesis]] that produces [[oxygen]] as a [[byproduct]], while some bacteria perform [[anoxygenic photosynthesis]].
== Origin and the Great Oxidation Event == Chemical and geological evidence indicate that photosynthetic [[cyanobacteria]] existed about 2.6 billion years ago and [[anoxygenic photosynthesis]] had been taking place since a billion years before that.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|author2-link=Robert E. Blankenship|last1=Olson|first1=John M.|last2=Blankenship|first2=Robert E.|date=2004|title=Thinking About the Evolution of Photosynthesis|url=http://link.springer.com/10.1023/B:PRES.0000030457.06495.83|journal=Photosynthesis Research|language=en|volume=80|issue=1–3|pages=373–386|doi=10.1023/B:PRES.0000030457.06495.83|pmid=16328834|bibcode=2004PhoRe..80..373O |s2cid=1720483|issn=0166-8595|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Oxygenic [[photosynthesis]] was the primary source of free oxygen and led to the [[Great Oxidation Event]] roughly 2.4 to 2.1 billion years ago during the [[Neoarchean]]-[[Paleoproterozoic]] boundary.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Hodgskiss|first1=Malcolm S. W.|last2=Crockford|first2=Peter W.|last3=Peng|first3=Yongbo|last4=Wing|first4=Boswell A.|last5=Horner|first5=Tristan J.|date=27 August 2019|title=A productivity collapse to end Earth's Great Oxidation|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|language=en|volume=116|issue=35|pages=17207–17212|doi=10.1073/pnas.1900325116|issn=0027-8424|pmc=6717284|pmid=31405980|bibcode=2019PNAS..11617207H |doi-access=free }}</ref> Although the end of the Great Oxidation Event was marked by a significant decrease in gross [[primary production|primary productivity]] that eclipsed extinction events,<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Lyons|first1=Timothy W.|last2=Reinhard|first2=Christopher T.|last3=Planavsky|first3=Noah J.|date=February 2014|title=The rise of oxygen in Earth's early ocean and atmosphere|url=http://www.nature.com/articles/nature13068|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=506|issue=7488|pages=307–315|doi=10.1038/nature13068|pmid=24553238|bibcode=2014Natur.506..307L |s2cid=4443958|issn=0028-0836|url-access=subscription}}</ref> the development of [[cellular respiration|aerobic respiration]] enabled more energetic metabolism of organic molecules, leading to [[symbiogenesis]] and the [[evolution]] of [[eukaryote]]s, and allowing the diversification of [[complex life]] on Earth.
== Prokaryotic photoautotrophs == Prokaryotic photoautotrophs include [[Cyanobacteria]], [[Pseudomonadota]], [[Chloroflexota]], [[Acidobacteriota]], [[Green sulfur bacteria|Chlorobiota]], [[Bacillota]], [[Gemmatimonadota]], and Eremiobacterota.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last1=Sánchez-Baracaldo|first1=Patricia|last2=Cardona|first2=Tanai|date=February 2020|title=On the origin of oxygenic photosynthesis and Cyanobacteria|journal=New Phytologist|language=en|volume=225|issue=4|pages=1440–1446|doi=10.1111/nph.16249|pmid=31598981|issn=0028-646X|doi-access=free|hdl=10044/1/74260|hdl-access=free}}</ref>
Cyanobacteria is the only prokaryotic group that performs oxygenic [[photosynthesis]]. Anoxygenic photosynthetic bacteria use [[Photosystem I|PSI]]- and [[Photosystem II|PSII]]-like [[photosystem]]s, which are pigment protein complexes for capturing light. Both of these photosystems use [[bacteriochlorophyll]]. There are multiple hypotheses for how oxygenic photosynthesis evolved. The loss hypothesis states that PSI and PSII were present in anoxygenic ancestor cyanobacteria from which the different branches of anoxygenic bacteria evolved. The fusion hypothesis states that the photosystems merged later through [[horizontal gene transfer]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Björn |first=Lars |date=June 2009 |title=The evolution of photosynthesis and chloroplasts |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299247771 |journal=[[Current Science]] |volume=96 |issue=11 |pages=1466–1474 |via=}}</ref> The most recent hypothesis suggests that PSI and PSII diverged from an unknown common ancestor with a protein complex that was coded by one gene. These photosystems then specialized into the ones that are found today.<ref name=":1" />
== Eukaryotic photoautotrophs == Eukaryotic photoautotrophs include [[red algae]], [[haptophyte]]s, [[stramenopile]]s, [[Cryptomonad|cryptophytes]], [[Chlorophyta|chlorophytes]], and [[Embryophyte|land plants]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Yoon|first1=Hwan Su|last2=Hackett|first2=Jeremiah D.|last3=Ciniglia|first3=Claudia|last4=Pinto|first4=Gabriele|last5=Bhattacharya|first5=Debashish|date=May 2004|title=A Molecular Timeline for the Origin of Photosynthetic Eukaryotes|url=https://academic.oup.com/mbe/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/molbev/msh075|journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution|language=en|volume=21|issue=5|pages=809–818|doi=10.1093/molbev/msh075|pmid=14963099|issn=1537-1719|doi-access=free}}</ref> These organisms perform [[photosynthesis]] through organelles called [[chloroplast]]s and are believed to have originated about 2 billion years ago.<ref name=":0" /> Comparing the genes of chloroplast and cyanobacteria strongly suggests that chloroplasts evolved as a result of [[Endosymbiont|endosymbiosis]] with [[cyanobacteria]] that gradually lost the genes required to be free-living. However, it is difficult to determine whether all chloroplasts originated from a single, primary endosymbiotic event, or multiple independent events.<ref name=":0" /> Some [[brachiopod]]s (''[[Gigantoproductus]]'') and [[bivalve]]s (''[[Tridacna]]'') also evolved photoautotrophy.<ref>{{cite book | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=bL60DwAAQBAJ&dq=largest+Gigantoproductus+giganteus&pg=PA47 | title = Convergent Evolution on Earth. Lessons for the Search for Extraterrestrial Life | publisher = MIT Press | date = 2019 | access-date = 23 August 2022 | page = 47 | author = George R. McGhee, Jr. | isbn = 9780262354189 }}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
[[Category:Trophic ecology]] [[Category:Biology terminology]] [[Category:Photosynthesis]]