Plant Biology Assignment on Plant Biology processes and mechanisms

This assignment delves into key concepts of plant biology, starting with the carbon cycle, a crucial pathway for carbon exchange within the biosphere. It explains how plants absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen through photosynthesis, and how grasses utilize this process. The assignment then explores glycolysis, the process of energy generation from glucose, and how it functions in both plants and animals. It further examines cellular respiration, which provides energy from food. Finally, the assignment discusses G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs), highlighting their roles in cellular signaling and various biological processes. The assignment also provides relevant references to support the concepts discussed.

Running head: PLANT BIOLOGY
Plant Biology
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author’s name

1PLANT BIOLOGY
Question 1
The carbon cycle is a biological, chemical and geological pathway where the carbon
molecule is exchanged in between the biosphere. The carbon cycle is a procedure of the
movement of the carbon in the whole biosphere as being recycled and reused (Lemon 2019). The
procedure of the carbon cycle starts with plants absorbing the carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere and utilizes the energy from the sun to fix the carbon to create sugar and other
carbohydrates which is then stored for future use or can be used by other herbivore organism.
During this whole procedure, the plants keep on releasing oxygen to the atmosphere which is
consistently used by other living animals and microorganisms. The Photosynthesis is a
biochemical procedure where the plants have a role of removing carbon from the atmosphere.
Similarly like other trees and plants, the grasses are chlorophyll-based plants which
absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to utilize it for the photosynthesis process. The
process utilizes sunlight and water in order to transform CO2 into carbohydrates and simple
sugars to develop energy and evolution, “fixing” the greenhouse gases from the atmosphere into
the soil by sequestration and delivering oxygen as a bi-product. During the procedure of
photosynthesis, the grasses trap the light energy emitted by the sun by the blade of grass. Grasses
use that energy to water (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2) into glucose. This glucose is used by
the grasses and other plants for energy and to create other molecules such as cellulose and starch
(Lerdau, Jablonski, Ziska, Yang and 2018).

2PLANT BIOLOGY
Question 2
Glycolysis is a sequence of processes which generate energy from glucose by dividing it
into two three-carbon pyruvate molecules. Glycolysis occurs on a cell's cytosol. When the blade
of grass is consumed by the cow, it gets broken down by the cow’s microbial gut community.
The microbes in the gut initiate glycolysis wherein a series of reactions takes place by which six-
carbon glucose is converted into two three-carbon keto-acids (pyruvate) (Kumari 2017).
Glycolysis is the mechanism by which one glucose molecule is broke down to create two
pyruvic acid molecules (which is also called as pyruvate). The mechanism of glycolysis is a
multi-step metabolic system that exists in the cytoplasm of animal cells, plant cells, and
microorganism cells. The metabolic system acts on at least six enzymes (Kumari 2017).
Cellular respiration is a chemical process which produces energy from food. All
creatures, trees, and fungi undergo respiratory process to get a supply of air. Respiration yields
carbon dioxide. Oxygen is used in the respiration to break down food particles. The energy
released through this process is preserved as the chemical ATP. When the cell requires strength,
ATP (adenosine tri-phosphate) breaks down into ADP (adenosine di-phosphate). Respiration is
used to regenerate ATP (Igamberdiev, Eprintsev, Fedorin and Popov 2014).
Question 3
G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), also recognized as 7-(pass)-transmembrane
domain receptors, serpentine receptors, heptahelical receptors, 7TM receptors, and G-protein-
linked receptors (GPLR), form a big receptor protein group that recognizes molecules at the
exterior membrane of the cell and stimulates inner signal transduction mechanisms and,

3PLANT BIOLOGY
eventually, cellular reaction. The GPCRs are known as the 7-transmembrane receptors coupled
with G proteins as they travel via the cell membrane seven times (Alexander 2017).
For several polypeptide growth factors, cytokines, and hormones, the receptor tyrosine
kinases (RTKs) are the high affinity cell surface receptors. Of the 90 distinct genes described in
the human genome, 58 encode tyrosine kinase receptor proteins. It has been shown that receptor
tyrosine kinases are not only important regulators of normal cellular processes but also have a
crucial role in the development and progression of many types of cancers (Hubbard and Miller
2007).

4PLANT BIOLOGY
References
Alexander, S.P., Christopoulos, A., Davenport, A.P., Kelly, E., Marrion, N.V., Peters, J.A.,
Faccenda, E., Harding, S.D., Pawson, A.J., Sharman, J.L. and Southan, C., 2017. The Concise
Guide to PHARMACOLOGY 2017/18: G protein‐coupled receptors. British journal of
pharmacology, 174, pp.S17-S129.
Hubbard, S.R. and Miller, W.T., 2007. Receptor tyrosine kinases: mechanisms of activation and
signaling. Current opinion in cell biology, 19(2), pp.117-123.
Igamberdiev, A.U., Eprintsev, A.T., Fedorin, D.N. and Popov, V.N., 2014. Phytochrome‐
mediated regulation of plant respiration and photorespiration. Plant, cell & environment, 37(2),
pp.290-299.
Kumari, A., 2017. Sweet Biochemistry: Remembering Structures, Cycles, and Pathways by
Mnemonics. Academic Press.
Lemon, E.R. ed., 2019. CO2 and plants: the response of plants to rising levels of atmospheric
carbon dioxide. CRC Press.
Lerdau, M.T., Jablonski, A., Ziska, L.H., Yang, X. and Li, L., 2018, December. Transgenic
plants and the global carbon cycle. In AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts.