Does the C4 plant Trianthema portulacastrum (Aizoaceae) exhibit weakly expressed crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM)?
Klaus Winter
A C , Milton Garcia A , Aurelio Virgo A , Jorge Ceballos A and Joseph A. M. Holtum A B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, PO Box 0843-03092, Balboa, Ancón, Republic of Panama.
B College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, Qld 4811, Australia.
C Corresponding author. Email: winterk@si.edu
Functional Plant Biology 48(7) 655-665 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP20247
Submitted: 13 August 2020 Accepted: 6 October 2020 Published: 20 November 2020
Journal Compilation © CSIRO 2021 Open Access CC BY-NC-ND
Abstract
We examined whether crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) is present in Trianthema portulacastrum L. (Aizoaceae), a pantropical, salt-tolerant C4 annual herb with atriplicoid-type Kranz anatomy in leaves but not in stems. The leaves of T. portulacastrum are slightly succulent and the stems are fleshy, similar to some species of Portulaca, the only genus known in which C4 and CAM co-occur. Low- level nocturnal acidification typical of weakly expressed, predominantly constitutive CAM was measured in plants grown for their entire life-cycle in an outdoor raised garden box. Acidification was greater in stems than in leaves. Plants showed net CO2 uptake only during the light irrespective of soil water availability. However, nocturnal traces of CO2 exchange exhibited curved kinetics of reduced CO2 loss during the middle of the night consistent with low-level CAM. Trianthema becomes the second genus of vascular land plants in which C4 and features of CAM have been demonstrated to co-occur in the same plant and the first C4 plant with CAM-type acidification described for the Aizoaceae. Traditionally the stems of herbs are not sampled in screening studies. Small herbs with mildly succulent leaves and fleshy stems might be a numerically significant component of CAM biodiversity.
Keywords: CAM evolution, CO2 assimilation, C4 photosynthesis, facultative CAM, Kranz anatomy, Sesuvioideae, stem photosynthesis, Trianthema portulacastrum.
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