C4 photosynthesis articles within Nature Communications

Featured

• Article
  10 April 2015 | Open Access

  Arabidopsis uses two gluconeogenic gateways for organic acids to fuel seedling establishment

  During seed germination plants use gluconeogenesis to mobilize noncarbohydrate energy reserves. Here Eastmond et al. show that plants, unlike other eukaryotes, do not solely rely on a gluconeogenic pathway via the enzyme PCK but also use a second pathway relying on PPDK.

  • Peter J. Eastmond
  • , Holly M. Astley
  •  & Julian M. Hibberd

• Article
  26 February 2013 | Open Access

  Greater efficiency of photosynthetic carbon fixation due to single amino-acid substitution

  Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase, the key enzyme of C4 photosynthesis, evolved from an ancestral isoform in C3 plants and has a reduced feedback inhibition. Paulus et al.show that enhanced inhibitor tolerance of C4 phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase is achieved by a single amino-acid exchange.

  • Judith Katharina Paulus
  • , Daniel Schlieper
  •  & Georg Groth