IMAT 2018 Q35 [Anonymous Organism]

An organism, in bright sunlight, has the following features:

  • Consists of some cells with organelles which contain grana.

  • All cells contain molecules of ATP, ADP and NAD.

  • Some cells release carbon dioxide by diffusion all the time.

Which one of the following statements about the organism is correct?

A. It is made up of cells which all contain mitochondria and chloroplasts.
B. It is photosynthetic but has some cells which only respire.
C. It is an anaerobic organism which only releases carbon dioxide.
D. It is eukaryotic and all cells carry out photosynthesis.
E. It is prokaryotic and only carries out respiration.

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This question requires knowledge about photosynthetic cells. Breaking down the different criteria given in the questions:

Consists of some cells with organelles which contain grana.

Grana are stacks of thylakoids, found inside chloroplasts which are found in plants and protists. This tells us that this organism will be photosynthetic because grana (in thylakoid membrane) are where the light reactions of photosynthesis occur.

All cells contain molecules of ATP, ADP and NAD.

ATP is the energy currency of all cells, and ADP will also be present because you cannot have one without the other (ADP is just a depleted form of ATP). What about NAD? This is also true because all cells will undergo some form of cell metabolism, whether only in glycolysis if they are anaerobic cells or all the way to oxidative phosphorylation in aerobic respiring cells. Remember photosynthesis is generating carbon molecules which are then run through cell respiration.

Some cells release carbon dioxide by diffusion all the time.

Any cell performing cellular respiration will be constantly diffusing CO2, the waste product, out of the cell.

Now to break down our answer choices:

A. It is made up of cells which all contain mitochondria and chloroplasts.

We are only told that some of the cells contain organelles with grana (that organelle must be chloroplasts). Since this is the case, we cannot conclude whether all cells have both mitochondria and chloroplast. In fact, root cells of plants do not contain chloroplasts because these cells are found underground where there is no exposure to sunlight (and therefore have no need for photosynthetic machinery. Therefore A is incorrect.

B. It is photosynthetic but has some cells which only respire.

An organism with some cells that contain grana and therefore chloroplasts would be photosynthetic, but some cells would only respire (like root cells). Therefore B must be correct.

C. It is an anaerobic organism which only releases carbon dioxide.

This organism has photosynthetic machinery and therefore will produce oxygen as a photosynthesis product (along with glucose). Therefore C is incorrect.

D. It is eukaryotic and all cells carry out photosynthesis.

This is wrong for the same reasons as A, not all cells have a chloroplast and therefore not every cell could perform photosynthesis. Therefore D is incorrect.

E. It is prokaryotic and only carries out respiration.

We are already told that it has photosynthetic machinery and therefore it does not only carry out respiration. Therefore E is incorrect.

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