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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 ...
The earliest recorded observation of this behavior in plants dates back to 324 BC when Androsthenes of Thasos, a companion to Alexander the Great, noted the opening and closing of tamarind tree leaves from day to night. [15] Carl Linnaeus (1729) proposed that this was the plants sleeping, but this idea has been widely contested.
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 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.
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 ...
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.
In the dark, plants instead release sucrose into the phloem from their starch reserves to provide energy for the plant. The Calvin cycle thus happens when light is available independent of the kind of photosynthesis ( C3 carbon fixation , C4 carbon fixation , and crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) ); CAM plants store malic acid in their ...
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.