Summary
Photosynthetic characteristics of two important grasses of Indian desert have been studied. Pennisetum typhoides, an important cereal crop, known to have ‚Kranz’-type leaf anatomy and low CO2-compensation point, shows the C-4-dicarboxylic acid pathway for photosynthetic carbon reduction. Lasiurus sindicus, a promising forage grass, has also been shown to possess, for the first time, a typical ‚Kranz’-type leaf anatomy and a very similar CO2-fixation pattern like Pennisetum typhoides. It is remarkable that both species after short time exposure to 14CO2 show a high labelling not only in malate but also in alanine. This may be due to the activity of an aspartic acid decarboxylase.
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Huber, W., Sankhla, N. & Ziegler, H. Eco-physiological studies on Indian arid zone plants. Oecologia 13, 65–71 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00379619
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00379619