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Photoautotrophs are organisms that can utilize light energy from sunlight, and elements (such as carbon) from inorganic compounds, to produce organic materials needed to sustain their own metabolism (i.e. autotrophy). Such biological activities are known as photosynthesis, and examples of such organisms include plants, algae and cyanobacteria.
Eukaryotic photoautotrophs absorb photonic energy through the photopigment chlorophyll (a porphyrin derivative) in their endosymbiont chloroplasts, while prokaryotic photoautotrophs use chlorophylls and bacteriochlorophylls present in free-floating cytoplasmic thylakoids. Plants, algae, and cyanobacteria perform oxygenic photosynthesis that produces oxygen as a byproduct, while some bacteria perform anoxygenic photosynthesis.