Increasing water use efficiency along the C3 to C4 evolutionary pathway: a stomatal optimization perspective.

ABSTRACT: C4 photosynthesis evolved independently numerous times, probably in response to declining atmospheric CO2 concentrations, but also to high temperatures and aridity, which enhance water losses through transpiration. Here, the environmental factors controlling stomatal behaviour of leaf-level carbon and water exchange were examined across the evolutionary continuum from C3 to C4 photosynthesis at current (400 μmol mol(-1)) and low (280 μmol mol(-1)) atmospheric CO2 conditions. To this aim, a stomatal optimization model was further developed to describe the evolutionary continuum from C3 to C4 species within a unified framework. Data on C3, three categories of C3-C4 intermediates, and C4 Flaveria species were used to parameterize the stomatal model, including parameters for the marginal water

SUBMITTER: Way DA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4085968 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature