Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Richard Haslam, Emerita Professor Anne Borland, Professor Howard Griffiths
Full text for this publication is not currently held within this repository. Alternative links are provided below where available.
The regulation and flexibility of the crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) pathway has been investigated in the 'extreme epiphyte' Tillandsia usneoides (L.). Submerging strands of T. usneoides under water, thereby inhibiting the supply of atmospheric CO2, allowed non-invasive in vivo manipulation of the supply of CO2 during the nocturnal Phase I of CAM. Once the plants were removed from submersion, T. usneoides maintained open stomata, and net CO2 uptake occurred throughout most of the photoperiod. Variability in the expression of CAM allowed T. usneoides to compensate for restricted CO2 availability through Phase I of CAM by adjusting gas exchange rates through the photoperiod and subsequent dark period to maintain a constant internal supply of CO2 in the light. Furthermore, T. usneoides demonstrated a gradual, rather than rapid, change in phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) activation across the day-night cycle, such that PEPC and Rubisco appear to work in tandem in order to maintain carbon balance for this extreme atmospheric bromeliad.
Author(s): Haslam RP, Borland AM, Griffiths H
Publication type: Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstract)
Publication status: Published
Conference Name: Functional Plant Biology: 3rd International Congress on Crassulacean Acid Metabolism
Year of Conference: 2002
Pages: 749-756
ISSN: 1445-4408
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/PP01214
DOI: 10.1071/PP01214
Library holdings: Search Newcastle University Library for this item
ISBN: 14454416
