Department of Plant Sciences, Downing Street, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EA, UK.
J Exp Bot. 2011 May;62(9):3049-59. doi: 10.1093/jxb/err012. Epub 2011 Feb 14.
Our most productive crops and native vegetation use a modified version of photosynthesis known as the C(4) pathway. Leaves of C(4) crops have increased nitrogen and water use efficiencies compared with C(3) species. Although the modifications to leaves of C(4) plants are complex, their faster growth led to the proposal that C(4) photosynthesis should be installed in C(3) crops in order to increase yield potential. Typically, a limited set of proteins become restricted to mesophyll or bundle sheath cells, and this allows CO(2) to be concentrated around the primary carboxylase RuBisCO. The role that these proteins play in C(3) species prior to their recruitment into the C(4) pathway is addressed here. Understanding the role of these proteins in C(3) plants is likely to be of use in predicting how the metabolism of a C(3) leaf will alter as components of the C(4) pathway are introduced as part of efforts to install characteristics of C(4) photosynthesis in leaves of C(3) crops.
我们最具生产力的作物和本地植被使用一种被称为 C(4)途径的光合作用的改良版本。与 C(3)物种相比，C(4)作物的叶片具有更高的氮和水利用效率。尽管 C(4)植物叶片的修饰很复杂，但它们更快的生长速度导致了这样一种提议，即应该在 C(3)作物中安装 C(4)光合作用，以提高潜在产量。通常，一组有限的蛋白质仅限于叶肉或束鞘细胞，这使得 CO(2)能够在初级羧化酶 RuBisCO 周围浓缩。这里讨论了这些蛋白质在 C(3)物种中被招募到 C(4)途径之前所起的作用。了解这些蛋白质在 C(3)植物中的作用可能有助于预测随着 C(4)途径成分的引入，C(3)叶片的代谢将如何改变，因为这些成分是作为将 C(4)光合作用的特征引入 C(3)作物叶片的一部分而引入的。
