Fig. 1. Evolution of PEPC genes (ppc) in the genus Flaveria. Sequence analyses suggest that the ppcA gene class was formed by gene duplication of a ppcB‐type PEPC gene (ppcB*) already present in the last common ancestral C3 plant that gave rise to F. pringlei (C3) and F. trinervia (C4) (Bläsing et al., 2002). The ppcA genes of F. trinervia (C4) encode the C4 PEPC of this species. The orthologous ppcA gene class of the closely related C3 species F. pringlei is used as a reference C3 gene for studying the evolution of C4 PEPC.