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About 8,100 plant species use C 4 carbon fixation, which represents about 3% of all terrestrial species of plants. [ 27 ] [ 28 ] All these 8,100 species are angiosperms . C 4 carbon fixation is more common in monocots compared with dicots , with 40% of monocots using the C 4 pathway [ clarification needed ] , compared with only 4.5% of dicots.
Biological carbon fixation, or сarbon assimilation, is the process by which living organisms convert inorganic carbon (particularly carbon dioxide, CO 2) to organic compounds. These organic compounds are then used to store energy and as structures for other biomolecules .
PEPCK (EC 4.1.1.49) is one of three decarboxylation enzymes used in the inorganic carbon concentrating mechanisms of C 4 and CAM plants. The others are NADP-malic enzyme and NAD-malic enzyme. [17] [18] In C 4 carbon fixation, carbon dioxide is first fixed by combination with phosphoenolpyruvate to form oxaloacetate in the mesophyll.
3) It is then broken down releasing carbon dioxide and producing pyruvate. Carbon dioxide combines with ribulose bisphosphate and proceeds to the Calvin Cycle. C4 plants have developed the C4 carbon fixation pathway to conserve water loss, thus are more prevalent in hot, sunny, and dry climates. [20]
Maize (Zea mays, Poaceae) is the most widely cultivated C 4 plant.[1]In botany, C 4 carbon fixation is one of three known methods of photosynthesis used by plants. C 4 plants increase their photosynthetic efficiency by reducing or suppressing photorespiration, which mainly occurs under low atmospheric CO 2 concentration, high light, high temperature, drought, and salinity.
Through photosynthesis, plants use CO 2 from the atmosphere, water from the ground, and energy from the sun to create sugars used for growth and fuel. [22] While using these sugars as fuel releases carbon back into the atmosphere (photorespiration), growth stores carbon in the physical structures of the plant (i.e. leaves, wood, or non-woody stems). [23]
This ability to avoid photorespiration makes these plants more hardy than other plants in dry and hot environments, wherein stomata are closed and internal carbon dioxide levels are low. Under these conditions, photorespiration does occur in C 4 plants, but at a much lower level compared with C 3 plants in the same conditions.
During the day, CAM plants close stomata and use stored acids as carbon sources for sugar, etc. production. The C3 pathway requires 18 ATP and 12 NADPH for the synthesis of one molecule of glucose (3 ATP + 2 NADPH per CO 2 fixed) while the C4 pathway requires 30 ATP and 12 NADPH (C3 + 2 ATP per CO 2 fixed).