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Contrasting C3, C4 and CAM Photosynthesis - overview

Contrasting C3, C4 and CAM Photosynthesis - overview. Undergraduate level notes. Carbon Fixation. You may have gathered by now that the fundamental difference between C3 and the higher plant CCMs C4 and CAM, is in the initial fixation step .

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Contrasting C3, C4 and CAM Photosynthesis - overview

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  1. Contrasting C3, C4 and CAM Photosynthesis - overview Undergraduate level notes

  2. Carbon Fixation • You may have gathered by now that the fundamental difference between C3 and the higher plant CCMs C4 and CAM, is in the initial fixation step. • The first crucial point to note is that RuBisCO is the only net carboxylase on Earth. • So how exactly do C4 and CAM differ?

  3. Carbon Fixation • The difference between the more familiar C3 carbon fixation and that of C4 and CAM is that the latter systems separate the initial “fixation” or drawing down of CO2from the true fixation step that is catalysed by RuBisCO. • This is achieved via an enzyme called PEPC (phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase), but it is important to remember that this is not a net fixation of CO2 – regenerating the substrate, PEP, of this reaction entails the loss of the CO2.

  4. Carbon Fixation • In both C4 and CAM plants, PEPC catalyses the incorporation of CO2 into 4C acids such as malate. • More accurately, carbonic anhydrasesare required first to convert CO2 to HCO3-and it is this which is fixed by PEPC into oxaloacetate, which can be converted into malate. • The 4C acid can then be concentrated around RuBisCO and converted back to CO2.

  5. Why “fix” CO2 using PEPC? • Let’s pause a moment and remind ourselves of what is going on here – why introduce these additional steps? Why not allow RuBisCO to fix CO2 directly? • Remember that ambient CO2 concentrations are around 390ppm, or about 0.04%, compared to the 21% ambient O2. • RuBisCO has both carboxylase and oxygenase activity – the latter being wasteful and potentially damaging.

  6. Why “fix” CO2 using PEPC? • PEPC on the other hand has higher specificity for CO2. • PEPC can therefore act as a selective turbocharger of CO2 relative to O2. • This results in a greater concentration of CO2 being delivered to RuBisCO  a greater carboxylation efficiency  a greater photosynthetic yield.

  7. C4 vs CAM • Returning finally to the mechanisms of C4 and CAM: if they both use the same enzyme to separate out the initial fixation of CO2 from the actual fixation of CO2 by RuBisCO, in order to concentrate it, what actually is the difference between them? • The answer is that one (C4) is a spatial separation of these two processes, between anatomically separate tissues (Kranz anatomy), while the other (CAM) is a temporal separation of the processes.

  8. C4 and CAM • For greater detail on these two processes, see the Undergraduate Teaching Resources dedicated to each of them.

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