[Rabn]

Hey folks.  I wondering if anyone off the top of their head knows how many moles of electrons are used during photosynthesis to reduce the appropriate species.  This pertains to the chlorophyll and the light reaction.  I'm trying to find out many moles of electrons are used in the light cycle to produce 1 mole of glucose after the completion of the dark cycle.  Ultimately I'd like to calculate how many grams of chlorophyll(via chloroplasts) are necessary to produce 1 pound of glucose in a reasonable amount of time; reasonable being a couple days.  I'm going to be honest, I haven't searched extensively through literature and I don't have the time to work out the redox reactions.  I don't really expect someone to sit down and figure this out...just wondering if anyone has this knowledge at the ready.  Cheers, RABN

[Arkcon]

Hmmm...that question becomes tricky, rapidly.  As I recall, and I have to try, because wikipedia doesn't have the diagrams I remember from basic bio books, two photons are needed, to split one water, and generate two H⁺, carried by the carrier molecule NADP.  But that reducing hydrogen can be used for anything, not just carbon fixation, and even the chemistry of that itself depends on the particular plant species: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_fixation