C3 carbon fixation
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C3 carbon fixation is the most common of three metabolic pathways for carbon fixation in photosynthesis, the other two being C4 and CAM. This process converts carbon dioxide and ribulose bisphosphate
Cross section of a C3 plant, specifically of an Arabidopsis thaliana leaf. Vascular bundles shown. Drawing based on microscopic images courtesy of Cambridge University Plant Sciences Department.
Photorespiration
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Photorespiration refers to a process in plant metabolism where the enzyme RuBisCO oxygenates ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate, wasting some of the energy produced by photosynthesis. The desired reaction is t
C3 carbon fixation
…during hundreds of millions of years from above 5000 ppm) because RuBisCO incorporates more oxygen into RuBP as temperatures increase. This leads to photorespiration (also known as the oxidative photosynthetic carbon cycle, or C2 photosynthesis), which leads to a net loss of carbon and nitrogen from the plant and…
Maize uses the C4 pathway, minimizing photorespiration
Overnight graph of CO2 absorbed by a CAM plant