The potential of the machinery of Photosynthesis to address Global Food issues.
When the thermodynamics behind these fundamental energy processes that balance the Earth's Carbon accounts and that of life is amply understood, there are indications of a massive abundance of food that can feed our (G)Local communities.
The more RuBisCO is grown, the more Carbon is pulled from our Atmosphere!
When living organisms or minerals are extracted for various levels of production and manufacturing and then disposal, the circular loop is not closed! This is the Linear extraction value chain. Instead of living in a World of Abundance, our Societies increasingly live in a World of Scarcity! The Natural World already lives in abundance through the eloquent processes that it uses to concentrate energy and then expend energy.
The two primary cycles of how Carbon is cycled through The Natural World can be broken down the fast which is The Fast or Photosynthetic Cycle and the Slow, which is the Silicate-Carbonate cycle.
Berner, R. The long-term carbon cycle, fossil fuels and atmospheric composition. Nature 426, 323–326 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02131
The Fast or Photosynthetic Cycle.
The Fast or Photosynthetic Cycle has played an essential role in Earth's Natural history for the last couple of Billion years. It is arguably the most important and fundamental process underpinning the complexity of life on our planet. The Fast Cycle involves Water and Carbon Dioxide, the critical inputs for storing energy and releasing it to power complex life.
The atmosphere provides a highly available source of Carbon in the form of Carbon Dioxide, Water, and Oxygen to support the Earth’s Biosphere so that it can provide Ecosystem services as it is cycled through the Calvin and Kreb Cycle.?
Critical facts on Photosynthesis.
Photosynthesis is one of Earth's most important biological processes, as it produces most of the oxygen in our atmosphere, upon which nearly all life depends.
Photosynthesis occurs in green plants, algae, and some bacteria when solar energy converts carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and organic matter in glucose.
Glucose is then converted into nutrients and used by plants and animals.
Eukaryotes are multicellular organisms that make up Plants, Animals, and Fungi. The process of Photosynthesis with cyanobacteria has been around for Billions of years, gradually transforming our atmosphere from what was initially toxic to one that contains oxygen able to power complex life.
Somewhere in the distant past, the ancestors of Eukaryotes consumed photogenic bacteria and also ancestors of Mitochondria, which eventually evolved a symbiotic relationship that enabled both types to provide an essential role in providing a more efficient way of obtaining and using cellular energy.?
“Many Proterozoic oil deposits are attributed to the activity of cyanobacteria. They are also important providers of nitrogen fertilizer in the cultivation of rice and beans. The cyanobacteria have also been tremendously important in shaping the course of evolution and ecological change throughout earth's history. The oxygen atmosphere that we depend on was generated by numerous cyanobacteria during the Archaean and Proterozoic Eras. Before that time, the atmosphere had a very different chemistry, unsuitable for life as we know it today.”
“The other great contribution of the cyanobacteria is the origin of plants. The chloroplast with which plants make food for themselves is actually a cyanobacterium living within the plant's cells. Sometime in the late Proterozoic, or in the early Cambrian, cyanobacteria began to take up residence within certain eukaryote cells, making food for the eukaryote host in return for a home. This event is known as endosymbiosis, and is also the origin of the eukaryotic mitochondrion.”
Plant cells, through the photosynthesis capacity incorporated into their cells from cyanobacteria, can extract CO2 and Water and produce simple sugars such as Glucose and oxygen.?
The Energy of the Sun is captured through Photosystems I and II, and then via the Calvin Cycle when energy is stored as a simple sugar that then can be processed by the Kreb cycle in the same cell if it is a plant. Animal Cells can use these simple sugars through the Kreb cycle to produce cellular energy. Glucose is a simple Carbohydrate and the primary energy source, and a building block to produce complex carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, the necessary building blocks of life.?
Photons of light and Water through Photosystems I and II produce ATP (Adenosine triphosphate), the currency of cellular energy.?
The diagram below is a simple explanation of Photosystems I and II, where ATP is produced by splitting up Water. I've included a more in-depth reference below, but for this analysis of the linkages concerning the Photosystem, the Calvin, and the Kreb cycle, we follow ATP, Water, CO2, and Glucose.
There is also a commonality with (NADPH) Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate complex. Still, this linkage is complex and not entirely understood by Science, but it can potentially explain the addictive nature of Cigarettes and their active ingredient.
Niacin and NAD+
Niacin?is a form of water-soluble vitamin B3 and has been known since American biochemist Conrad Elvehjem identified it in 1937. Niacin was originally called nicotinic acid because it can be created by the oxidation of nicotine with nitric acid. However, people know nicotine to be the addictive chemical in tobacco, so the name niacin was adopted, which comes from the words?NIcotinic?ACid vitamIN."
"There has been considerable interest in supplements that have the ability to increase NAD+ levels in recent years, and niacin is one such supplement that can do this. NAD+ biology plays an important role in energy metabolism, so before we dive into the results of a new human study that we want to spotlight today, we should discuss NAD+ and why it is important in the context of metabolism and aging."
"Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) is a coenzyme found in all living cells. It is a dinucleotide, which means that it consists of two nucleotides joined through their phosphate groups. One nucleotide contains an adenine base, and the other contains nicotinamide."
"In metabolism, NAD facilitates redox reactions, carrying electrons from one reaction to another. This means that NAD is found in two forms in the cell; NAD+ is an oxidizing agent that takes electrons from other molecules in order to become its reduced form, NADH. NADH can then become a reducing agent that donates the electrons it carries. The transfer of electrons is one of the main functions of NAD, though it also performs other cellular processes, including acting as a substrate for enzymes that add or remove chemical groups from proteins in post-translational modifications."
"NAD+ is created from simple building blocks, such as the amino acid tryptophan, and it is created in a more complex way via the intake of food that contains nicotinic acid (niacin) or other NAD+ precursors. These different pathways ultimately feed into a salvage pathway, which recycles them back into the active NAD+ form."
https://www.lifespan.io/news/niacin-increases-nad-significantly-in-human-trial/
领英推荐
From a thermodynamics perspective, potential energy is transferred between the Calvin and Kreb cycle in simple sugars. Photosystems I and II produce the potential energy as ATP by recycling it from ADP (Adenosine diphosphate).? The Calvin Cycle consumes the ATP or Potential Energy and produces simple sugars to feed the Kreb cycle within the Cell's Mitochondria. Animals and Fungi are ultimately powered by the simple sugars obtained by plants so that their Mitochondria can produce ATP for their cells' energy requirements.
“ADP cycling supplies the energy needed to do work in a biological system, the thermodynamic process of transferring energy from one source to another. There are two types of energy: potential energy and kinetic energy. Potential energy can be thought of as stored energy, or usable energy that is available to do work. Kinetic energy is the energy of an object as a result of its motion. The significance of ATP is in its ability to store potential energy within the phosphate bonds. The energy stored between these bonds can then be transferred to do work. For example, the transfer of energy from ATP to the protein myosin causes a conformational change when connecting to actin during muscle contraction.”
“It takes multiple reactions between myosin and actin to effectively produce one muscle contraction, and, therefore, the availability of large amounts of ATP is required to produce each muscle contraction. For this reason, biological processes have evolved to produce efficient ways to replenish the potential energy of ATP from ADP.”
“Breaking one of ATP's phosphorus bonds generates approximately 30.5 kilojoules per mole of ATP (7.3 kcal).[3] ADP can be converted, or powered back to ATP through the process of releasing the chemical energy available in food; in humans, this is constantly performed via aerobic respiration in the mitochondria.[2] Plants use photosynthetic pathways to convert and store energy from sunlight, also conversion of ADP to ATP.[3] Animals use the energy released in the breakdown of glucose and other molecules to convert ADP to ATP, which can then be used to fuel necessary growth and cell maintenance”
I have always wondered why plants cannot grow in the dark if fed Glucose. The reason is that the Calvin Cycle, the dark reaction of photosynthesis, needs an input of ATP at the cellular level to eventually produce Glucose, which can be transferred as potential energy to Animals and Fungal through predation.
“Calvin cycle is a vital step in the dark reaction of photosynthesis that occurs in the stroma of the chloroplast of green plants. It is a cyclic biochemical pathway which proceeds with the use of carbon dioxide and the production of oxygen. As per the definition, Calvin cycle is a set of reactions taking place in the dark reaction of the photosynthesis, which means that it does not require sunlight. The activation of electrons does not take place in the Calvin cycle. But the necessary energy requirements for the processes are fulfilled by the consumption of ATP.”
RuBisCO is the protein that fixes CO2 by extracting it from the atmosphere, ultimately used to produce simple sugars.?
The Kreb or Citric Acid Cycle.
“Krebs cycle is simply a part of the aerobic respiration process that takes place in cells. Production of carbon dioxide and ATP (adenosine triphosphate) with some other by-products occurs during the whole process of cellular respiration and Krebs cycle is an important part of that. Organisms store energy in the form of ATP. The process is known by many different names such as Citric acid cycle, Tricarboxylic acid cycle, or Krebs cycle. But all these names refer to one process. Since most types of organisms are aerobic (plants, animals, microorganisms), the Krebs cycle takes place in all these aerobic organisms.”
“Krebs cycle is a vital step in the respiratory pathway where Acetyl coenzyme A is broken down with oxygen that leads to release energy to produce ATP molecules. However, Acetyl coenzyme A is produced from the respiratory substrates such as glucose, amino acid, or fats. This process does not operate in the absence of oxygen and the respiratory substrates are broken down in the Krebs cycle. Since this cycle involves both breakdown (catabolic) and synthesis (anabolic) steps, it is known as an amphibolic pathway. The whole process has been named after Hans Krebs, who won the Nobel Prize in 1953 for the discovery of it.”
This analysis outlines the flow of energy through photosynthesis at the cellular level through producers and consumers of Energy. If these cycles operated on a 1 to 1 ratio that the water and Carbon Dioxide that went into the system where Water and Photons of light were consumed in the Photosystems, followed by CO2 consumed by RuBisCO in the Calvin Cycle and with the Kreb Cycle producing the same amount of CO2 and Water to produce Kinetic Energy, There will never be the exact amount of energy imputed as outputted as Entropy or the Natural tendency towards maximum randomness, can never be wholly conserved.? Photosynthesis has a more significant role in providing the abundant food we enjoy. Each step away from this fundamental protein source will result in more significant deadweight losses to our Planet’s ability to support us and the life that populates it.
RuBisCO, fundamental to the production of simple Carbohydrates that all complex Eukaryotic life enjoys, happens by a weird coincidence to be the most abundant Protein on Earth.?
RuBisCO can be considered the fundamental food and the most eloquent from a Thermodynamic perspective. As our society is becoming more Food stressed, there is an urgent need to tap into this Fundamental Food Source that can easily be regenerated from the Energy of the Sun. The availability of Proteins for food-stressed populations is of top consideration out of all of the Macro-nutrients such as Carbohydrates, Proteins, and Fats.
Herbivores probably obtain their Protein needs from RuBisCO, which constitutes 50% of proteins in leaves. Even Though it is a low source of Protein, around 4%, their complex digestive tract can extract it from the massive amount of inherent fiber, as their dietary protein requirements.
If hogs and humans can obtain their Dietary Protein needs from Legumes, but it would take 7 to 11 kgs of Legumes fed to hogs to produce a kg of pork, then it would take 7 to 11 times more land for humans to obtain their protein needs from pork, than from a diet of legumes. The land that is not used to produce protein through Animal based Agriculture can be used to restore Ecosystems in line with our current U.N. decade of Ecosystem Restoration. From a Thermodynamic perspective, this is a huge deadweight loss to our (G)Local Socio-Economic Infrastructure. Imagine extracting a protein source with the same amino acid profile as beef and more digestible from the machinery behind Photosynthesis.
Cover crops such as Alfalfa, routinely used in Regenerative Agriculture, can restore the Nitrogen balance in our Soils and be harvested for their RuBisCO as a side-stream from the principal crop.
As suggested Alternative proteins, I would rather eat RuBisCO than source my protein requirements from insects. RuBisCO contains all Amino Acids in a highly digestible form.
A previous Article on the Virtues of RuBisCO.?
An Open Source project, Greens for Good, to extract Proteins from leaves.
A couple of weeks ago, I may have recovered RuBisCO solely with the resources contained in my kitchen. I COULD NOT VERIFY IT since I need access to specialized Food Labs.
As there is potential in this alternative protein, and there currently needs to be more information on possible uses, individuals or Entities that have the resources and credentials must evaluate the feasibility of RuBisCO as a food source. The potential Economic and Environmental value can go a long way in our (G)Local communities as we deal with issues on overhauling our Agricultural Infrastructure while mitigating our Climatic Conundrum and dealing with Food stresses on a Global Scale.
May we collectively strive to do more of what works and less of what does not!
Cordially Yours
D. Bruce Merlo
514 462-4298
PhD, Research Scientist, Innovating Sustainable Solutions for Industry Profit & Longevity
2 年This is a beautiful article with amazing information in simple language. Thank you very much Bruce Merlo for sharing this amazing article with us ????????????
biologist and educator
2 年Seems like this company is working on it: https://rubiscofoods.com/plant-protein/