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Question

Is maize a C3 or C4 plant?


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Solution

C3 plants:

  1. Plants that follow the C3 pathway are C3 plants.
  2. In these, CO2 is fixed into a compound containing three carbon atoms.
  3. The key enzyme is RuBisCo.
  4. Examples - wheat, rye, and orchardgrass.

C4 plants:

  1. Plants that follow the C4 pathway are C4 plants.
  2. Oxaloacetic acid (OAA), a 4-carbon compound is the first stable product of carbon fixation in such plants.
  3. The key enzyme is phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) carboxylase.
  4. Examples are maize, sorghum, and sugarcane.

Maize as a C4 plant:

  1. Maize is a C4 plant as it uses the C4 pathway, also called the hatch slack pathway for carbon fixation during photosynthesis.
  2. Being a C4 plant, it has a higher photosynthesis efficiency than C3 plants, which is increased by reducing photorespiration.
  3. It has special leaf anatomy called Kranz anatomy to tolerate high temperatures - a characteristic of C4 plants.

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