Molecular evolution of C4 photosynthesis in the dicot genus Flaveria: implications for the design of a C4 plant
2007
Gowik, U. | Westhoff, P., Institut fur Entwicklungs- und Molekularbiologie der Pflanzen, Heinrich-Heine-Universitat, Universitatsstrabe 1, D-40225 Dusseldorf, Germany
C4 photosynthesis is characterized by a division of labor between two different photosynthetic cell types, mesophyll and bundle sheath cells. Relying on phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) as the primary carboxylase in the mesophyll cells, a CO2 pump is established in C4 plants that concentrates CO2 at the site of ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase in the bundle sheath cells. The C4 photosynthetic pathway evolved polyphyletically, implying that the genes encoding the C4 genes originated from nonphotosynthetic progenitor genes that were already present in the C3 ancestral species. To establish a C4 cycle in a C3 plant, detailed knowledge about the components of C4 photosynthesis and the differences of these components in C3 and C4 plants is needed.
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