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Transcriptional Activation of CAM Genes During Development and Environmental Stress

  • Chapter
Crassulacean Acid Metabolism

Part of the book series: Ecological Studies ((ECOLSTUD,volume 114))

Abstract

Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) can be defined as the ability to perform significant CO2 assimilation into C4 acids (mainly malic acid) in the dark. Reutilization of the stored C4 acids results in a characteristic diel (24 h) pattern of organic-acid fluctuation along with a reciprocal pattern of fluctuating levels of storage glucan. CAM is found primarily, although not exclusively, in succulent plants, particularly those having large chloroplast-containing parenchyma cells with the ability to store large amounts of malic acid and water. CAM plants are mainly tropical or subtropical in origin and typically inhabit arid environments with periodic water deficits such as semi-deserts, or regions with Mediterranean climates, or epiphytic habitats in tropical forests (Kluge and Ting 1978). Their ecological distribution and the observation that CAM plants open their stomata at night and close them during the day to avoid excessive evaporative water loss have led to the general consensus that CAM is a functional adaptation to dry environments and a means of water conservation. However, not all CAM plants occur in arid environments. Isoetes and related species which grow in aquatic environments display CAM (Keeley and Busch 1984). In these instances, CAM provides the plants with a source of carbon when levels of CO2 in the aquatic environment become limiting during the day.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, 74078-0454, USA

    J. C. Cushman

  2. Departments of Biochemistry, of Molecular and Cellular Biology, and of Plant Sciences, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA

    H. J. Bohnert

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  1. J. C. Cushman
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  2. H. J. Bohnert
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, P.O. Box 2072, Balboa, Republic of Panama

    Klaus Winter

  2. Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3RB, UK

    J. Andrew C. Smith

  3. Magdalen College, Oxford, OX1 4AU, UK

    J. Andrew C. Smith

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Cushman, J.C., Bohnert, H.J. (1996). Transcriptional Activation of CAM Genes During Development and Environmental Stress. In: Winter, K., Smith, J.A.C. (eds) Crassulacean Acid Metabolism. Ecological Studies, vol 114. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-79060-7_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-79060-7_10

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