Mathematical Modeling and Simulation of the Photosynthesis in a Plant Leaf Cell

Abstract

Photosynthesis is a very important process in plants which occurs in chloro- plasts. Plants use photon energy to oxidize water molecule, release oxygen, and convert carbon dioxide to sugar molecule. The process of photosynthe- sis contains two main parts: light dependent reactions and light independent reactions. A mathematical model, which describes the diffusion-transport and related chemical reactions in a multi-component flow in a single C3 plant leaf cell, is constructed. A sub-domain of a leaf cell is considered containing multiple organelles: chloroplast, mitochondria, vacuole, cytoplasm, and peroxisome. A typical distribution of a finite number of these organelles inside a cell is considered. The cell domain is decomposed in 5 sub-domains, separated by fixed interfaces. The interacting chemical reactions induced by light, of the Calvin cycle, the starch synthesis, sugar synthesis, respiration and photores- piration are investigated. A sensitivity analysis was performed, the results allows a reduction of the complex system. A system of partial differential equations, which describes the diffusion-transport and also related chemical reactions is formulated and simulated using the software Gascoigne. For the reduced system, the resulting flow of substances is analyzed.