Final answer:
Prokaryotes such as cyanobacteria perform photosynthesis in infolded plasma membrane regions similar to thylakoids, using chlorophyll to capture sunlight and carbon dioxide to produce organic molecules.
Step-by-step explanation:
Prokaryotes, such as cyanobacteria, accomplish photosynthesis without chloroplasts by having infoldings in the plasma membrane where chlorophyll is attached. These infolded regions function similarly to the thylakoids in chloroplasts found in eukaryotic cells. In these infoldings, photoautotrophic prokaryotes can carry out the light-dependent reactions and the Calvin cycle necessary for photosynthesis.
Photoautotrophic prokaryotes use sunlight as their energy source and carbon dioxide as their carbon source to synthesize organic molecules. Chlorophyll or bacterial rhodopsin in these prokaryotes trap the solar energy which is then converted to ATP and NADPH, used in the Calvin cycle to fix carbon dioxide into sugars.