The pineapple is an example of a CAM plant.
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] In a plant using full CAM, the stomata in the leaves remain shut during the day to reduce evapotranspiration, but open at night to collect carbon dioxide (CO
2). The CO
2 is stored as the four-carbon acid malate, and then used during photosynthesis during the day. The pre-collected CO
2 is concentrated around the enzyme RuBisCO, increasing photosynthetic efficiency.
Contents
- 1 Historical background
- 2 Overview of CAM: a two-part cycle
- 2.1 During the night
- 2.2 During the day
- 2.3 Benefits
- 2.4 Comparison with C4 metabolism
- 3 Biochemistry
- 4 Use of CAM by plants
- 5 Aquatic CAM
- 6 Ecological and taxonomic distribution of CAM-using plants
- 7 See also
- 8 External links
- 9 References
Historical background
CAM was first suspected by de Saussure in 1804 in his Recherches Chimiques sur la Vegetation, confirmed and refined by Aubert, E. in 1892 in his Recherches physiologiques sur les plantes grasses and expounded upon by Richards, H. M. 1915 in Acidity and Gas Interchange in Cacti, Carnegie Institution. The term CAM may have been coined by Ranson and Thomas in 1940, but they were not the first to discover this cycle. It was observed by the botanists Ranson and Thomas, in the Crassulaceae family of succulents (which includes jade plants and Sedum).[2] Its name refers to acid metabolism in Crassulaceae, not the metabolism of crassulacean acid.
Overview of CAM: a two-part cycle
CAM is an adaptation for increased efficiency in the use of water, and so is typically found in plants growing in arid conditions.[3]
During the night
During the night, a plant employing CAM has its stomata open, allowing CO
2 to enter and be fixed as organic acids that are stored in vacuoles. During the day the stomata are closed (thus preventing water loss), and the carbon is released to the Calvin cycle so that photosynthesis may take place.
Overnight graph of CO2 absorbed by a CAM plant
The carbon dioxide is fixed in the cytoplasm of mesophyll cells by a PEP reaction similar to that of C4 pathway. But, unlike the C4 mechanism, the resulting organic acids are stored in vacuoles for later use; that is, they are not immediately passed on to the Calvin cycle. The latter cannot operate during the night because the light reactions that provide it with ATP and NADPH cannot take place.
During the day
During the day, the CO
2-storing organic acids are released from the vacuoles of the mesophyll cells and enter the stroma of the chloroplasts where an enzyme releases the CO
2, which then enters into the Calvin cycle.
Benefits
The most important benefit of CAM to the plant is the ability to leave most leaf stomata closed during the day.[4] Plants employing CAM are most common in arid environments, where water comes at a premium. Being able to keep stomata closed during the hottest and driest part of the day reduces the loss of water through evapotranspiration, allowing such plants to grow in environments that would otherwise be far too dry. Plants using only C3 carbon fixation, for example, lose 97% of the water they uptake through the roots to transpiration - a high cost avoided by plants able to employ CAM.[5][What percentage is lost in CAM plants?]
Comparison with C4 metabolism
CAM is named after the family Crassulaceae, to which Jade plant belongs
The C4 pathway bears resemblance to CAM; both act to concentrate CO
2 around RuBisCO, thereby increasing its efficiency. CAM concentrates it in time, providing CO
2 during the day, and not at night, when respiration is the dominant reaction. C4 plants, in contrast, concentrate CO
2 spatially, with a RuBisCO reaction centre in a "bundle sheath cell" being inundated with CO
2. Due to the inactivity required by the CAM mechanism, C4 carbon fixation has a greater efficiency in terms of PGA synthesis
Biochemistry
Plants with CAM must control storage of CO
2 and its reduction to branched carbohydrates in space and time.
At low temperatures (frequently at night), plants using CAM open their stomata, CO
2 molecules diffuse into the spongy mesophyll's intracellular spaces and then into the cytoplasm. Here, they can meet phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP), which is a phosphorylated triose. During this time, the plants are synthesizing a protein called PEP carboxylase kinase (PEP-C kinase), whose expression can be inhibited by high temperatures (frequently at daylight) and the presence of malate. PEP-C kinase phosphorylates its target enzyme PEP carboxylase (PEP-C). Phosphorylation dramatically enhances the enzyme's capability to catalyze the formation of oxalacetate, which can be subsequently transformed into malate by NAD+ malate dehydrogenase. Malate is then transported via malate shuttles into the vacuole, where it is converted into the storage form malic acid. In contrast to PEP-C kinase, PEP-C is synthesized all the time but almost inhibited at daylight either by dephosphorylation via PEP-C phosphatase or directly by binding malate. The latter is not possible at low temperatures, since malate is efficiently transported into the vacuole, whereas PEP-C kinase readily inverts dephosphorylation.
At daylight, plants using CAM close their guard cells and discharge malate that is subsequently transported into chloroplasts. There, depending on plant species, it is cleaved into pyruvate and CO
2 either by malic enzyme or by PEP carboxykinase. CO
2 is then introduced into the Calvin cycle, a coupled and self-recovering enzyme system, which is used to build branched carbohydrates. The by-product pyruvate can be further degraded in the mitochondrial citric acid cycle, thereby providing additional CO
2 molecules for the Calvin Cycle. Pyruvate can also be used to recover PEP via pyruvate phosphate dikinase, a high-energy step, which requires ATP and an additional phosphate. During the following cool night, PEP is finally exported into the cytoplasm, where it is involved in fixing carbon dioxide via malate.
Use of CAM by plants
Cross section of a CAM (Crassulacean acid metabolism) plant, specifically of an agave leaf. Vascular bundles shown. Drawing based on microscopic images courtesy of Cambridge University Plant Sciences Department.
Plants use CAM to different degrees. Some are "obligate CAM plants", i.e. they use only CAM in photosynthesis, although they vary in the amount of CO
2 they are able to store as organic acids; they are sometimes divided into "strong CAM" and "weak CAM" plants on this basis. Other plants show "inducible CAM", in which they are able to switch between using either the C3 or C4 mechanism and CAM depending on environmental conditions. Another group of plants employ "CAM-cycling", in which their stomata do not open at night; the plants instead recycle CO
2 produced by respiration as well as storing some CO
2 during the day.[3]
Plants showing inducible CAM and CAM-cycling are typically found in conditions where periods of water shortage alternate with periods when water is freely available. Periodic drought – a feature of semi-arid regions – is one cause of water shortage. Plants which grow on trees or rocks (as epiphytes or lithophytes) also experience variations in water availability. Salinity, high light levels and nutrient availability are other factors which have been shown to induce CAM.[3]
Since CAM is an adaptation to arid conditions, plants using CAM often display other xerophytic characters, such as thick, reduced leaves with a low surface-area-to-volume ratio; thick cuticle; and stomata sunken into pits. Some shed their leaves during the dry season; others (the succulents[verification needed]) store water in vacuoles. CAM also causes taste differences: plants may have an increasingly sour taste during the night yet become sweeter-tasting during the day. This is due to malic acid being stored in the vacuoles of the plants' cells during the night and then being used up during the day.[6]
Aquatic CAM
CAM photosynthesis is also found in aquatic species in at least 4 genera, including: Isoetes, Crassula, Littorella, Sagittari, and possibly Vallisneria,[7] being found in a variety of species e.g. Isoetes howellii.
These plants follow the same nocturnal acid accumulation and daytime deacidification as terrestrial CAM species.[8] However, the reason for CAM in aquatic plants is not due to a lack of available water, but a limited supply of CO
2.[9] CO
2 is limited due to slow diffusion in water, 10000x slower than in air. The problem is especially acute under acid pH, where the only inorganic carbon species present is CO
2, with no available bicarbonate or carbonate supply.
Aquatic CAM plants capture carbon at night when it is abundant due to a lack of competition from other photosynthetic organisms.[8] This also results in lowered photorespiration due to less photosynthetically generated oxygen.
Aquatic CAM is most marked in the summer months when there is increased competition for CO
2, compared to the winter months. However, in the winter months CAM still has a significant role.[10]
Ecological and taxonomic distribution of CAM-using plants
The majority of plants possessing CAM are either epiphytes (e.g., orchids, bromeliads) or succulent xerophytes (e.g., cacti, cactoid Euphorbias), but CAM is also found in hemiepiphytes (e.g., Clusia); lithophytes (e.g., Sedum, Sempervivum); terrestrial bromeliads; wetland plants (e.g., Isoetes, Crassula (Tillaea), Lobelia;[11] and in one halophyte, Mesembryanthemum crystallinum; one non-succulent terrestrial plant, (Dodonaea viscosa) and one mangrove associate (Sesuvium portulacastrum).
Plants which are able to switch between different methods of carbon fixation include Portulacaria afra, better known as Dwarf Jade Plant, which normally uses C3 fixation but can use CAM if it is drought-stressed,[12] and Portulaca oleracea, better known as Purslane, which normally uses C4 fixation but is also able to switch to CAM when drought-stressed.[13]
CAM has evolved convergently many times.[14] It occurs in 16,000 species (about 7% of plants), belonging to over 300 genera and around 40 families, but this is thought to be a considerable underestimate.[15] It is found in quillworts (relatives of club mosses), in ferns, and in Gnetopsida, but the great majority of plants using CAM are angiosperms (flowering plants).
The following list summarizes the taxonomic distribution of plants with CAM.
| Division |
Class/Angiosperm group |
Order |
Family |
Plant Type |
Clade involved |
| Lycopodiophyta |
Isoetopsida |
Isoetales |
Isoetaceae |
hydrophyte |
Isoetes[16] (the sole genus of class Isoetopsida) - I. howellii (seasonally submerged), I. macrospora, I. bolanderi, I. engelmanni, I. lacustris, I. sinensis, I. storkii, I. kirkii |
| Pteridophyta |
Polypodiopsida |
Polypodiales |
Polypodiaceae |
epiphyte, lithophyte |
CAM is recorded from Microsorium, Platycerium and Polypodium,[17] Pyrrosia and Drymoglossum[18] and Microgramma |
|
Pteridopsida |
Polypodiales |
Pteridaceae[19] |
epiphyte |
Vittaria[20]
Anetium citrifolium[21]
|
| Cycadophyta |
Cycadopsida |
Cycadales |
Zamiaceae |
|
Dioon edule[22] |
| Pinophyta |
Gnetopsida |
Welwitschiales |
Welwitschiaceae |
xerophyte |
Welwitschia mirabilis[23] (the sole species of the order Welwitschiales) |
| Magnoliophyta |
magnoliids |
Magnoliales |
Piperaceae |
epiphyte |
Peperomia camptotricha[24] |
|
eudicots |
Caryophyllales |
Aizoaceae |
xerophyte |
widespread in the family; Mesembryanthemum crystallinum is a rare instance of an halophyte that displays CAM[25] |
|
|
|
Cactaceae |
xerophyte |
Almost all cacti have obligate Crassulacean Acid Metabolism in their stems; the few cacti with leaves may have C3 Metabolism in those leaves;[26] seedlings have C3 Metabolism.[citation needed] |
|
|
|
Portulacaceae |
xerophyte |
recorded in approximately half of the genera (note: Portulacaceae is paraphyletic with respect to Cactaceae and Didieraceae)[27] |
|
|
|
Didiereaceae |
xerophyte |
|
|
|
Saxifragales |
Crassulaceae |
hydrophyte, xerophyte, lithophyte |
CAM is widespread in the family |
|
eudicots (rosids) |
Vitales |
Vitaceae[28] |
|
Cissus,[29] Cyphostemma |
|
|
Malpighiales |
Clusiaceae |
hemiepiphyte |
Clusia[29][30] |
|
|
|
Euphorbiaceae[28] |
|
CAM is found is some species of Euphorbia[29][31] including some formerly placed in the sunk genera Monadenium,[29] Pedilanthus[31] and Synadenium. C4 photosynthesis is also found in Euphorbia (subgenus Chamaesyce). |
|
|
|
Passifloraceae[19] |
xerophyte |
Adenia[citation needed] |
|
|
Geraniales |
Geraniaceae |
|
CAM is found in some succulent species of Pelargonium,[32] and is also reported from Geranium pratense[citation needed] |
|
|
Cucurbitales |
Cucurbitaceae |
|
Xerosicyos danguyi,[33] Dendrosicyos socotrana[citation needed], Momordica[citation needed] |
|
|
Celastrales |
Celastraceae |
|
|
|
|
Oxalidales |
Oxalidaceae |
|
|
|
|
Brassicales |
Moringaceae |
|
Moringa[citation needed] |
|
|
Sapindales |
Sapindaceae |
|
Dodonaea viscosa |
|
|
|
Zygophyllaceae |
|
Zygophyllum[citation needed] |
|
eudicots (asterids) |
Ericales |
Ebenaceae |
|
|
|
|
Solanales |
Convolvulaceae |
|
Ipomaea[citation needed] |
|
|
Gentianales |
Rubiaceae |
epiphyte |
Hydnophytum and Myrmecodia |
|
|
|
Apocynaceae |
|
CAM is found in subfamily Asclepidioideae (Hoya,[29] Dischidia, Ceropegia, Stapelia,[31] Caralluma negevensis, Frerea indica,[34] Adenium, Huernia), and also in Carissa[citation needed] and Akocanthera[citation needed] |
|
|
Lamiales |
Gesneriaceae |
epiphyte |
CAM was found Codonanthe crassifolia, but not in 3 other genera[35] |
|
|
|
Lamiaceae |
|
Plectranthus marrubioides, Coleus[citation needed] |
|
|
|
Plantaginaceae |
hydrophyte |
Littorella uniflora[16] |
|
|
Apiales |
Apiaceae |
hydrophyte |
Lilaeopsis lacustris |
|
|
Asterales |
Asteraceae[28] |
|
some species of Senecio[36] |
| Magnoliophyta |
monocots |
Alismatales |
Hydrocharitaceae |
hydrophyte |
Hydrilla,[28] Vallisneria |
|
|
|
Alismataceae |
hydrophyte |
Sagittaria |
|
|
|
Araceae |
|
Zamioculcas zamiifolia is the only CAM plant in Araceae, and the only non-aquatic CAM plant in Alismatales[37] |
|
|
Poales |
Bromeliaceae |
epiphyte |
Bromelioideae (91%), Puya (24%), Dyckia and related genera (all), Hechtia (all), Tillandsia (many)[38] |
|
|
|
Cyperaceae |
hydrophyte |
Scirpus,[28] Eleocharis |
|
|
Asparagales |
Orchidaceae |
epiphyte |
The Orchidaceae has more CAM species than any other family (CAM Orchids) |
|
|
|
Agavaceae[30] |
xerophyte |
Agave,[29] Hesperaloe, Yucca |
|
|
|
Asphodelaceae[28] |
xerophyte |
Aloe,[29] Gasteria[29] and Haworthia |
|
|
|
Ruscaceae[28] |
|
Sansevieria,[29] Dracaena[citation needed] |
|
|
Commelinales |
Commelinaceae |
|
Callisia,[29] Tradescantia, Tripogandra |
See also
- C2 photosynthesis
- C3 carbon fixation
- C4 carbon fixation
- RuBisCO
External links
- Khan Academy, video lecture
References
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