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Photorespiration may be necessary for the assimilation of nitrate from soil. Thus, a lowering in photorespiration by genetic engineering or because of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide may not benefit plants as has been proposed. [13] Several physiological processes may be responsible for linking photorespiration and nitrogen assimilation.
This leads to photorespiration (also known as the oxidative photosynthetic carbon cycle, or C2 photosynthesis), which leads to a net loss of carbon and nitrogen from the plant and can therefore limit growth. C 3 plants lose up to 97% of the water taken up through their roots by transpiration. [3]
RuBisCO is important biologically because it catalyzes the primary chemical reaction by which inorganic carbon enters the biosphere.While many autotrophic bacteria and archaea fix carbon via the reductive acetyl CoA pathway, the 3-hydroxypropionate cycle, or the reverse Krebs cycle, these pathways are relatively small contributors to global carbon fixation compared to that catalyzed by RuBisCO.
When the concentration of carbon dioxide is high, RuBisCO will fix carbon dioxide. However, if the carbon dioxide concentration is low, RuBisCO will bind oxygen instead of carbon dioxide. This process, called photorespiration, uses energy, but does not produce sugars. RuBisCO oxygenase activity is disadvantageous to plants for several reasons:
The enzyme RuBisCO is responsible for "fixing" CO 2 – that is, it attaches it to a carbon-based molecule to form a sugar, which can be used by the plant, releasing an oxygen molecule along the way. However, the enzyme is notoriously inefficient, and just as effectively will also fix oxygen instead of CO 2 in a process called photorespiration.
The process of photorespiration, also known as C2 cycle, is also coupled to the Calvin cycle, as it results from an alternative reaction of the RuBisCO enzyme, and its final byproduct is another glyceraldehyde-3-P molecule.
Atmospheric oxygen competes with this reaction. In a process called photorespiration RuBisCo can also catalyze addition of atmospheric oxygen to the C2 carbon of RuBP forming a high energy hydroperoxide intermediate that decomposes into 2-phosphoglycolate and 3-phosphoglycerate. [ 1 ]
One efficiency-focused research topic is improving the efficiency of photorespiration. Around 25% of the time RuBisCO incorrectly collects oxygen molecules instead of CO 2, creating CO 2 and ammonia that disrupt the photosynthesis process. Plants remove these byproducts via photorespiration, requiring energy and nutrients that would otherwise ...