Adaptations at the Cell and Organelle Level for Utilizing Sunlight

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1974-11

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The discovery of multiple pathways of carbon dioxide assimilation and dissimilation in higher plants has drastically changed the research and thinking in plant biology. The theme is developed that adaptations within photosynthesis are of fundamental importance in plants and that changes in this dominant metabolic process arc apt to result in strong and immediate selection advantages in the course of plant evolution. Data are presented on the variations in photosynthetic CO2 assimilation in the reductive pentose phosphate cycle, the C4-dicarboxylic acid cycle, and in Crassulacean acid metabolism. Photosynthetic studies with primitive plants such as P silo turn nudum indicate a metabolism similar to Cj-dicarboxylic acid may have arisen in this primitive plant.

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Author Institution: Biochemistry Department, University of Georgia

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The Ohio Journal of Science. v74, n6 (November, 1974), 339-350