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JXB Advance Access published online on April 23, 2008
Journal of Experimental Botany, doi:10.1093/jxb/ern006
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© The Author [2008]. Published by Oxford University Press [on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology]. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

SPECIAL ISSUE REVIEW PAPER

Clusia: Holy Grail and enigma

Ulrich Lüttge*

Institut für Botanik, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Schnittspahnstrasse 3–5, D-64287 Darmstadt, Germany

* E-mail: luettge{at}bio.tu-darmstadt.de

Clusia is the only genus with bona fide dicotyledonous trees performing Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM). Clusia minor L. is extraordinarily flexible, being C3/CAM intermediate and expressing the photosynthetic modes C3, CAM, CAM-cycling, and CAM-idling. C3 photosynthesis and CAM can be observed simultaneously in two opposite leaves on a node and possibly even within the same leaf in the interveinal lamina and the major vein tissue, respectively. The relative activity of photosystem II ({Phi}PSII) indicating photosynthetic energy use, is larger under photorespiratory than under non-photorespiratory conditions due to the particular energy demand of photorespiration. The heterogeneity of {Phi}PSII over the leaves as visualized by chlorophyll fluorescence imaging in the C3 mode is larger under non-photorespiratory conditions than under photorespiratory conditions. These observations indicate that photorespiration, presumably by its particular energy demand, synchronizes photosynthetic activity over the leaves. In the CAM mode, the heterogeneity of {Phi}PSII is more dependent on the transitions between CAM phases. Free-running circadian oscillations of photosynthesis are strongly dampened in both the C3 and the CAM mode. Photorespiration is under circadian clock control in both the C3 and the CAM mode. {Phi}PSII and the heterogeneity of {Phi}PSII oscillate in phase with CO2 uptake and photorespiration only under non-photorespiratory conditions. Under photorespiratory conditions, {Phi}PSII does not oscillate and there is no heterogeneity, again indicating the stabilizing function of photorespiration. Plants acclimatized to perform CAM switch to C3 photosynthesis during free-running oscillations while subjected to constant illumination.

Key words: Circadian rhythmicity, photorespiration, photosynthetic physiotypes, photosystem II activity, physiotypic plasticity

Received 30 August 2007; Revised 11 December 2007 Accepted 7 January 2008


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