C4 Photosynthesis in Sodium-Deficient Plants

1979 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 431 ◽  
Author(s):  
TS Boag ◽  
PF Brownell

The C4 plants Kochia childsii Hort. and Chloris barbata Sw. showed symptoms characteristic of sodium deficiency. The δ13C value, CO2 compensation point and percentage of 14C label in C4 dicarboxylic acids in short-term photosynthesis were similar in sodium-deficient and normal plants. This is consistent with the operation of the C4 pathway.

2002 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 775 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rowan F. Sage

This paper originates from a presentation at the IIIrd International Congress on Crassulacean Acid Metabolism, Cape Tribulation, Queensland, Australia, August 2001. Despite sharing a similar metabolism, crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) and C4 photosynthesis are not known to occur in identical species, with the exception of Portulaca spp. In Portulaca, C4 and weak CAM photosynthesis occur in distinct regions of the leaf, rather than in the same cells. This is in marked contrast to the situation in most CAM species where C3 and CAM photosynthesis are active in the same cell over the course of a day and growing season. The lack of CAM and C4 photosynthesis in identical cells of a plant indicates these photosynthetic pathways are incompatible. Incompatibilities between CAM and C4 photosynthesis could have a number of biochemical, anatomical and evolutionary explanations. Biochemical incompatibilities could result from the requirement for spatial separation of C3 and C4 phases in C4 plants versus temporal separation in CAM plants. In C4 plants, regulatory systems coordinate mesophyll and bundle sheath metabolism, with light intensity being the major environmental signal. In CAM plants, a circadian oscillator coordinates day and night phases of CAM. The requirement for rapid intercellular transport in C4 plants may be incompatible with the intracellular transport and storage needs of CAM. For example, the large vacuole required for malate storage in CAM could impede metabolite diffusion between mesophyll and bundle sheath cells in C4 plants. Anatomical barriers could also exist because both CAM and the C4 pathway require distinct leaf anatomies for efficient function. Efficient function of the C4 pathway generally requires an outer layer of cells specialized for phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) carboxylation and regeneration and an inner layer for CO2 accumulation and refixation, while CAM species require enlarged vacuoles and tight cell packing. In evolutionary terms, barriers preventing CAM and C4 photosynthesis in the same species may be the initial steps in the respective evolutionary pathways from C3 ancestors. The first steps in C4 photosynthesis are related to scavenging photorespiratory CO2 via localization of glycine decarboxylase in the bundle sheath cells. The initial steps in CAM evolution are associated with the scavenging of respiratory CO2 at night by PEP carboxylation. In each, simplified versions of the specialized anatomy may need to be present for the evolutionary sequence to begin. For C4 evolution, enhanced bundle sheath size may be required in C3 ancestors; for CAM evolution, succulence may be required. Thus, before CAM or C4 photosynthesis began to evolve, the outcome of the evolutionary experiment may have been predetermined.


1970 ◽  
Vol 48 (6) ◽  
pp. 1251-1257 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. P. Voskresenskaya ◽  
G. S. Grishina ◽  
S. N. Chmora ◽  
N. M. Poyarkova

Apparent photosynthesis of attached leaves of Phaseolus vulgaris, Vicia faba, Pisum sativum, and Nicotiana tabacum at various intensities of blue and red light was measured by infrared CO2 gas analyzer in a closed system. Simultaneously the CO2 compensation point was measured.It was found that light-limited photosynthetic rate in blue light was equal to or more than that in red light. Inhibition of photosynthesis, which sometimes occurred at light-saturated intensities of blue light, could be avoided by addition of red light, prolonged exposure of the plants to blue light, or by lowering the O2 concentration. Accordingly, the increase of photosynthetic rate due to change of O2 concentration from 21 to 3% O2 is higher in blue light only when photosynthesis is inhibited by blue light at 21% O2. The data on the action of blue and red light on the CO2 compensation point seems to exclude the activation of photorespiration by blue light.The possible effects of blue light on apparent photosynthesis are discussed on the basis of the results presented.


1991 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 137 ◽  
Author(s):  
SC Wong ◽  
CB Osmond

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), a C3 species, and Japanese millet (Echinochloa frumentacea Link), a C4 species, were grown in pots in monoculture and mixed culture (2 C3 : 1 C4 and 1 C3:2 C4) at two ambient partial pressures of CO2 (320 and 640 μbar), two photosynthetic photon flux densities (PPFDs) (daily maximum 2000 and 500 �mol m-2 s-1) and two levels of nitrogen nutrition (12 mM and 2 mM NO3-). Growth of shoots of both components in mixed culture was measured by physical separation, and the proportions of root biomass due to each component were calculated from δ13C value of total root biomass. In air (320 μbar CO2) at high PPFD and with high root zone-N, the shoot biomass of C3 and C4 components at the first harvest (28 days) was in proportion to the sowing ratio. However, by the second harvest (36 days) the C4 component predominated in both mixtures. Under the same conditions, but with low PPFD, C3 plants predominated at the first harvest but C4 plants had over- taken them by the time of the second harvest. Elevated atmospheric CO2 (640 μbar) stimulated shoot growth of Triticum in 15 of 16 treatment combinations and the stimulation was greatest in plants provided with low NO3-. Root growth of the C3 plants was generally stimulated by elevated CO2, but was only occasionally sensitive to the presence of C4 plants in mixed culture. However, growth of the C4 plants was often sensitive to the presence of C3 plants in mixed culture. In mixed cultures, elevated CO2 plants stimulated growth of C4 plants at high PPFD, high-N and in all low-N treatments but this was insufficient to offset a marked decline in shoot growth with increasing proportion of C3 plants in mixed cultures. The unexpected stimulation of growth of C4 plants by elevated CO2 was correlated with more negative δ13C values of C4 root biomass, suggesting a partial failure of the CO2 concentrating mechanism of C4 photosynthesis in Echinochloa under low-N. These experiments show that for these species nitrogen was more important than light or elevated pCO2 in determining the extent of competitive interactions in mixed culture.


1974 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 171 ◽  
Author(s):  
JR Mcwilliam ◽  
K Mison

The existence of the C4 pathway of photosynthesis and also a novel form of Kranz-type leaf anatomy in T. irritans support the case for the inclusion of the genus Triodia in the Eragrosteae. They also provide further evidence for the suggestion that C4 plants are at a selective advantage in hot arid environments.


2007 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika A. Sudderth ◽  
Riyadh M. Muhaidat ◽  
Athena D. McKown ◽  
Ferit Kocacinar ◽  
Rowan F. Sage

Flaveria (Asteraceae) is one of the few genera known to contain both C3 and C4 species, in addition to numerous biochemically-intermediate species. C3-C4 and C4-like intermediate photosynthesis have arisen more than once in different phylogenetic clades of Flaveria. Here, we characterise for the first time the photosynthetic pathway of the recently described species Flaveria kochiana B.L. Turner. We examined leaf anatomy, activity and localisation of key photosynthetic enzymes, and gas exchange characteristics and compared these trait values with those from related C4 and C4-like Flaveria species. F. kochiana has Kranz anatomy that is typical of other C4 Flaveria species. As in the other C4 lineages within the Flaveria genus, the primary decarboxylating enzyme is NADP-malic enzyme. Immunolocalisation of the major C4 cycle enzymes, PEP carboxylase and pyruvate, orthophosphate dikinase, were restricted to the mesophyll, while Rubisco was largely localised to the bundle sheath. Gas exchange analysis demonstrated that F. kochiana operates a fully functional C4 pathway with little sensitivity to ambient oxygen levels. The CO2 compensation point (2.2 µbar) was typical for C4 species, and the O2-response of the CO2 compensation point was the same as the C4 species F. trinervia. Notably, F. vaginata (B.L. Robinson & Greenman), a putative C4-like species that is the nearest relative of F. kochiana, had an identical response of the CO2 compensation point to O2. Furthermore, F. vaginata, exhibited a carbon isotope ratio (–15.4‰) similar to C4 species including F. australasica Hooker, F. trinervia Spreng. C. Mohr and the newly characterised F. kochiana. F. vaginata could be considered a C4 species, but additional studies are necessary to confirm this hypothesis. In addition, our results show that F. kochiana uses an efficient C4 cycle, with the highest initial slope of the A/Ci curve of any C4 Flaveria species.


2017 ◽  
Vol 132 (3) ◽  
pp. 245-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Berkley J. Walker ◽  
Douglas J. Orr ◽  
Elizabete Carmo-Silva ◽  
Martin A. J. Parry ◽  
Carl J. Bernacchi ◽  
...  

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