The biochemical and physiological characteristics of C4 photosynthesis have been researched and clarified in detail. We now know that the differentiation of two cell types, mesophyll cells (MC) and bundle sheath cells (BSC), is required for efficient C4 photosynthesis. Thus, the leaves of C4 plants have more complicated structural and functional features than those of C3 plants (Hatch, 1999; Ka...

Hybrids between the C4-like species, Flaveria brownii, A. M. Powell and the C3-C4 intermediate species Flaveria linearis Lag., Flaveria floridana Johnston, and Flaveria opposithfoIIa (DC.) Rydb. exhibited bivalent chromosome pairing during meiosis and stainability of pollen was high, ranging from 51 to 95%. An F2 population produced from an F. brownil x F. linearls F1 hybrid, exhibited bivalent...

The C4 photosynthetic pathway accounts for ∼25% of primary productivity on the planet despite being used by only 3% of species. Because C4 plants are higher yielding than C3 plants, efforts are underway to introduce the C4 pathway into the C3 crop rice. This is an ambitious endeavor; however, the C4 pathway evolved from C3 on multiple independent occasions over the last 30 million years, and st...

We used a fully factorial experimental design to examine the effects of fire season, simulated grazing and their interaction on the temporal stability (year-to-year variation in production) of the C4 bunchgrass, Bouteloua curtipendula, the C3 bunchgrass, Nassella leucotricha, and the C4 lawngrass, Buchloe dactyloides. Treatments included three levels of fire (winter fire, summer fire, and no fi...

There is currently significant interest in engineering the two-celled C4 photosynthesis pathway into crops such as rice in order to increase yield. This will require alterations to the biochemistry of photosynthesis in both mesophyll (M) and bundle-sheath (BS) cells, but also alterations to leaf anatomy. For example, the BS of C4 species is enlarged compared with that in C3 species. Because cel...

In this review, we examine how the specialized "Kranz" anatomy of C4 photosynthesis evolved from C3 ancestors. Kranz anatomy refers to the wreath-like structural traits that compartmentalize the biochemistry of C4 photosynthesis and enables the concentration of CO2 around Rubisco. A simplified version of Kranz anatomy is also present in the species that utilize C2 photosynthesis, where a photor...

C4 photosynthesis has independently evolved from the ancestral C3 pathway in at least 60 plant lineages, but, as with other complex traits, how it evolved is unclear. Here we show that the polyphyletic appearance of C4 photosynthesis is associated with diverse and flexible evolutionary paths that group into four major trajectories. We conducted a meta-analysis of 18 lineages containing species ...