Huber W, Sankhla N, Ziegler H
Botany Department, Technical University, Munich.
Oecologia. 1973 Mar;13(1):65-71. doi: 10.1007/BF00379619.
Photosynthetic characteristics of two important grasses of Indian desert have been studied. Pennisetum typhoides, an important cereal crop, known to have 'Kranz'-type leaf anatomy and low CO-compensation point, shows the C-4-dicarboxylic acid pathway for photosynthetic carbon reduction. Lasiurus sindicus, a promising forage grass, has also been shown to possess, for the first time, a typical 'Kranz'-type leaf anatomy and a very similar CO-fixation pattern like Pennisetum typhoides. It is remarkable that both species after short time exposure to CO show a high labelling not only in malate but also in alanine. This may be due to the activity of an aspartic acid decarboxylase.
