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The path of carbon in photosynthesis

  • Chapter
Die CO2-Assimilation / The Assimilation of Carbon Dioxide

Abstract

As knowledge regarding the formation of organic compounds from carbon dioxide and other inorganic materials in green plants accumulates, it becomes increasingly apparent that it is difficult to distinguish which transformations of carbon compounds should be classified as part of the pathway of carbon in photosynthesis and which reactions should be considered as other metabolic processes of the plant. All reactions of a photoautotrophic plant rely ultimately on the energy stored by the photosynthetic process. Therefore, any definition of carbon reduction during photosynthesis based on requirement of energy or equivalents of reducing agents should specify the requirement precisely. Even so, it is questionable whether such a definition can distinguish between carbon reduction reactions of photosynthesis and other metabolic transformations of carbon compounds. It is now believed that energy-carrying compounds such as adenosine triphosphate and reducing agents such as reduced triphosphopyridine nucleotide which are formed during respiratory processes may also be formed directly from products close to the primary photochemical reactions of photosynthesis. Transformations of carbon compounds which require such substances and which take place in the dark may also occur at a greatly accelerated rate during photosynthesis. Furthermore, most, if not all, of the reactions of carbon reduction in photosynthesis are known to occur, although at a diminished rate, in the dark long after the immediate reducing and energy-carrying agents formed from the photochemical reaction have decayed.

The work described in this paper was sponsored in part by the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission and in part by the Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California, U.S.A.

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  1. J. A. Bassham
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  2. M. Calvin
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  1. Pflanzenphysiologisches Institut der Universität, Göttingen, Deutschland

    André Pirson

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Bassham, J.A., Calvin, M. (1960). The path of carbon in photosynthesis. In: Pirson, A. (eds) Die CO2-Assimilation / The Assimilation of Carbon Dioxide. Handbuch der Pflanzenphysiologie / Encyclopedia of Plant Physiology, vol 5. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-94798-8_30

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