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Crassulacean acid metabolism, also known as CAM photosynthesis, is a carbon fixation pathway that evolved in some plants as an adaptation to arid conditions [1] that allows a plant to photosynthesize during the day, but only exchange gases at night. In a plant using full CAM, the stomata in the leaves remain shut during the day to reduce ...
Photosynthesis (/ ˌ f oʊ t ə ˈ s ɪ n θ ə s ɪ s / FOH-tə-SINTH-ə-sis) [1] is a system of biological processes by which photosynthetic organisms, such as most plants, algae, and cyanobacteria, convert light energy, typically from sunlight, into the chemical energy necessary to fuel their metabolism.
CAM-cycling is a less water-efficient system whereby stomata open in the day, just as in plants using the C 3 mechanism. At night, or when the plant is short of water, the stomata close and the CAM mechanism is used to store CO 2 produced by respiration for use later in photosynthesis.
Many plants lose much of the remaining energy on growing roots. Most crop plants store ~0.25% to 0.5% of the sunlight in the product (corn kernels, potato starch, etc.). Photosynthesis increases linearly with light intensity at low intensity, but at higher intensity this is no longer the case (see Photosynthesis-irradiance curve). Above about ...
Stem succulents are succulent plants defined by their succulent stems, which function to store water and conduct photosynthesis.These plants, like many others native to hot desert regions, undergo CAM photosynthesis, an alternative metabolic pathway where the plants' stomata open to exchange gasses and fix CO 2 almost exclusively at night.
This pathway differs from C4 photosynthesis because CAM plants separate carbon by storing fixed CO 2 in vesicles at night, then transporting it for use during the day. Thus, CAM plants temporally concentrate CO 2 to improve RuBisCO efficiency, whereas C4 plants spatially concentrate CO 2 in bundle sheath cells.
Plants in the same geographical area tend to bloom on the same night. Also, for healthy plants, there can sometimes be as many as three separate blooming events spread out over the warmest months. The plants that bear such flowers can be tall, columnar, and sometimes extremely large and tree-like, but more frequently are thin-stemmed climbers.
CAM plants, such as cacti and succulent plants, also use the enzyme PEP carboxylase to capture carbon dioxide, but only at night. Crassulacean acid metabolism allows plants to conduct most of their gas exchange in the cooler night-time air, sequestering carbon in 4-carbon sugars which can be released to the photosynthesizing cells during the day.