Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Niechayev, Nicholas A
• Pereira, Paula N
• Cushman, John C

Titel

Understanding trait diversity associated with crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM)

Ist Teil von

• Current opinion in plant biology, 2019-06, Vol.49 (C), p.74-85

Ort / Verlag

England: Elsevier Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2019

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• •Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) improves water-use efficiency (WUE) and the adaptability of plants to typically hot and dry climates.•The extent to which CAM is engaged along a continuum depends upon evolutionary history, development, and proximate environmental conditions.•CAM plants show considerable diversity in the enzymatic machinery, organic acids, and carbohydrate storage forms necessary to perform CAM.•CAM is associated with numerous specialize anatomic traits that aid in plant survival under heat, high insolation, and water-deficit stress.•CAM-associated traits include strategies for capturing and storing water, reducing water loss, and rapid water uptake. Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) is a specialized mode of photosynthesis that exploits a temporal CO2 pump with nocturnal CO2 uptake and concentration to reduce photorespiration, improve water-use efficiency (WUE), and optimize the adaptability of plants to climates with seasonal or intermittent water limitations. CAM plants display a plastic continuum in the extent to which species engage in net nocturnal CO2 uptake that ranges from 0 to 100%. CAM plants also display diverse enzyme and organic acid and carbohydrate storage systems, which likely reflect the multiple, independent evolutionary origins of CAM. CAM is often accompanied by a diverse set of anatomical traits, such as tissue succulence and water-storage and water-capture strategies to attenuate drought. Other co-adaptive traits, such as thick cuticles, epicuticular wax, low stomatal density, high stomatal responsiveness, and shallow rectifier-like roots limit water loss under conditions of water deficit. Recommendations for future research efforts to better explore and understand the diversity of traits associated with CAM and CAM Biodesign efforts are presented.