REU: Photosynthetic Pathways in Seasonal Pool Aquatic Macrophytes

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Photosynthesis is the process by which plants convert atmospheric carbon dioxide into carbohydrates. All animals including man, directly or indirectly, depend upon this process for their daily caloric intake. Although food production demands are continuing to rise, our food production/unit of land area has leveled off. The future demands an increased understanding of and ability to manipulate plant photosynthesis. Our understanding of photosynthesis has changed dramatically in the last 15 years due to the discovery of different metabolic pathways in some plants. It is now known that there are at least two rather specialized groups of plants (C4 and CAM) which, prior to assimilating CO2 into glucose, fix C02 directly into an organic acid (malic acid). The proposed research will focus on recent discoveries of these unusual photosynthetic pathways incertain aquatic plants. It appears that for these aquatic plants, CO2 fixation into malic acid may be a mechanism for increasing net productivity. The implications of such a processare obvious when one recognizes that our most productive crops and our most drought.resistant crops possess this photosynthetic pathway. These generalizations however apply to terrestrial plants, very little is known about aquatic plant photosynthesis.