C3-C4 intermediacy in grasses: organelle enrichment and distribution, glycine decarboxylase expression, and the rise of C2 photosynthesis.

ABSTRACT: Photorespiratory glycine shuttling and decarboxylation in bundle sheath (BS) cells exhibited by C2 species is proposed to be the evolutionary bridge to C4 photosynthesis in eudicots. To evaluate this in grasses, we compare anatomy, cellular localization of glycine decarboxylase (GDC), and photosynthetic physiology of a suspected C2 grass, Homolepis aturensis, with these traits in known C2 grasses, Neurachne minor and Steinchisma hians, and C3 S laxum that is sister to S hians We also use publicly available genome and RNA-sequencing data to examine the evolution of GDC subunits and enhance our understanding of the evolution of BS-specific GDC expression in C2 and C4 grasses. Our results confirm the identity of H aturensis as a C2 species; GDC is confined predominantly to the organelle-enric

SUBMITTER: Khoshravesh R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4867898 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature