Table 3.
Mean activities of C4 photosynthetic enzymes in crude leaf extracts (±s.e.) of study C4 species Trianthema portulacastrum, Trianthema sheilae, Zaleya pentandra, and comparison C3 and C4 species (n = 3–5)
| Enzyme activity (μmol mg chlorophyll−1 h−1) |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Species | Photosynthetic type, sub-type | PEPC | NADP-ME | NAD-ME | PEP-CK |
| Study species | |||||
| Trianthema portulacastrum | C4, NADP-ME* | 1340·2 ± 8·4 | 767·2 ± 4·7 | 35·1 ± 1·4 | 518·5 ± 4·2 |
| Trianthema sheilae | C4, NAD-ME† | 1252·5 ± 7·4 | 26·6 ± 1·9 | 408·4 ± 12·8 | 53·5 ± 2·0 |
| Zaleya pentandra | C4, NAD-ME* | 1192·7 ± 10·3 | 45·8 ± 3·7 | 383·2 ± 8·1 | 319·4 ± 4·4 |
| Comparison species | |||||
| Euphorbia peplus L. | C3 | 37·5 ± 3·1 | 19·9 ± 2·3 | 11·1 ± 0·9 | 8·4 ± 0·5 |
| Zea mays L. | C4, NADP-ME | 1246·0 ± 14·1 | 719·1 ± 3·3 | 111·6 ± 4·1 | 152·2 ± 4·1 |
| Amaranthus retroflexus L. | C4, NAD-ME | 1095·1 ± 15·6 | 84·1 ± 4·6 | 679·8 ± 10·7 | 31·0 ± 0·2 |
| Cleome gynandra L. | C4, NAD-ME | 1130·7 ± 20·5 | 8·3 ± 0·3 | 648·2 ± 5·4 | 246·6 ± 4·4 |
| Melinis minutiflora Beauv. | C4, PEP-CK | 1030·5 ± 8·6 | 12·8 ± 0·6 | 119·3 ± 4·1 | 572·3 ± 6·0 |
* Designation based on Muhaidat et al. (2007)
† Designation based on this study.
PEPC, phosphoenolyruvate carboxylase; NADP-ME, NADP-malic enzyme; NAD-ME, NAD-malic enzyme; PEP-CK. phosphoenolyruvate carboxykinase.