Carbon Dioxide and Water Vapor Exchange in the Crassulacean Acid Metabolism Plant Kalanchoë pinnáta during a Prolonged Light Period

Abstract

Net CO(2) and water vapor exchange were studied in the Crassulacean acid metabolism plant Kalanchoë pinnáta during a normal 12-hour light/12-hour dark cycle and during a prolonged light period. Leaf temperature and leaf-air vapor pressure difference were kept constant at 20 C and 9 to 10 millibar. There was a 25% increase in the rate of CO(2) fixation during the first 6 hours prolonged light without change in stomatal conductance. This was associated with a decrease in the intracellular partial pressure of CO(2), a decrease in the stimulation of net CO(2) uptake by 2% O(2), and a decrease in the CO(2) compensation point from 45 to 0 microbar. In the normal light period after deacidification, leaves showed a normal light dependence of CO(2) uptake but, in prolonged light, CO(2) uptake was scarcely light-dependent. The increase in titratable acidity in prolonged light was similar to that in the dark.The results suggest a change from C(3) photosynthetic CO(2) fixation in the second part of the 12-hour light period to a mixed metabolism in prolonged light with both ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase as primary carboxylating enzymes.