Abstract
It has been widely accepted that carbon assimilation in bryophytes is exclusively based on the conventional C3 photosynthetic pathway. The occurrence of biochemical CO2-concentrating mechanisms (C4 or Crassulacean acid metabolism), which have developed in plants in the last 20–100 million years, has been discounted for bryophytes from studies of the carbon isotope composition (δ13C) of organic material. In contrast cyanobacteria and many algae show active accumulation of dissolved inorganic carbon via biophysical CO2-concentrating mechanisms which are also found in the photobiont partners in certain lichens. The presence of a pyrenoid, a granular particle within the chloroplast, has been linked with CO2-concentrating mechanism activity in green algae and lichens and we now show that such a mechanism is categorically associated with the occurrence of a pyrenoid in bryophytes belonging to the class of Anthocerotae. These observations have significant evolutionary implications for the development of terrestrial photosynthesis during the colonisation of the land, raising the intriguing question of why the pyrenoid-based CO2-concentrating mechanism did not persist in the terrestrial environment.
Similar content being viewed by others
Abbreviations
- CCM:
-
carbon-concentrating mechanism
- DIG:
-
dissolved inorganic carbon (CO2+HCO -3 +CO -2 )
- DW:
-
dry weight
- K0.5 :
-
external concentration of CO2 at which half-maximal rates of CO2 assimilation are reached
- Rubisco:
-
ribulose-l,5-bisphosphate carboxylase-oxygenase
- Δ:
-
carbon isotope discrimination (%)
- δ13C:
-
carbon isotope ratio (%)
References
Badger MR, Andrews TJ (1987) Co-evolution of Rubisco and CO2 concentrating mechanisms. In: Biggins J (ed) Progress in photosynthesis research. Martinus Nijhof, Dordrecht, pp 601–609
Badger MR, Pfanz H, Buedel B, Heber U, Lange OL (1993) Evidence for the functioning of photosynthetic carbon dioxide concentrating mechanisms in lichens containing green algal and cyanobacterial photobionts. Planta 191: 57–70
Badger MR, Price GD (1992) The CO2 concentrating mechanism in cyanobacteria and microalgae. Physiol Plant 84: 606–615
Bain JT and Proctor MCF (1980) The requirement of aquatic bryophytes for free CO2 as an inorganic carbon source: some experimental evidence. New Phytol 86: 393–400
Cowan IR, Lange OL, Green TGA (1992) Carbon-dioxide exchange in lichens: determination of transport and carboxylation characteristics. Planta 187: 282–294
Edwards D, Duckett JG, Richardson JB (1995) Hepatic characters in the earliest land plants. Nature 374: 635–636
Ehleringer JR, Sage RF, Flanagan LB, Pearcy RW (1991) Climate change and the evolution of C4 photosynthesis. TREE 6: 25–29
Evans JR, Sharkey TD, Berry JD, Farquhar GD (1986) Carbon isotope discrimination measured concurrently with gas exchange to investigate CO2 diffusion in leaves of higher plants. Aust J Plant Physiol 13: 281–292
Farquhar GD, Ehleringer JR, Hubick KT (1989) Carbon isotope discrimination and photosynthesis. Annu Rev Plant Physiol Plant Mol Biol 40: 503–537
Green TGA, Lange OL (1994) Photosynthesis in poikilohydric plants: A comparison of lichens and bryophytes. In: Schulze E, Caldwell MD (eds) Ecophysiology of photosynthesis. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, pp 319–141
Green TGA, Snelgar WP (1982) A comparison of photosynthesis in two thalloid liverworts. Oecologia 54: 275–280
Hassel de Menendez GG (1988) A proposal for a new classification of the genera within the Anthocerotophyta. J Hattori Bot Lab 64: 71–86
Kuchitsu K, Tsuzuki M, Miyachi S (1991) Polypeptide composition and enzyme activities of the pyrenoid and its regulation by CO2 concentrations in unicellular green algae. Can J Bot 69: 1062–1069
Lange OL, Budel B, Zellner H, Zotz G, Meyer A (1994) Field measurement of water relations and CO2 exchange of the tropical cyanobacterial basidiolichen Dictyonema glabratum in a Panamanian rainforest. Bot Acta 107: 279–290
Lange OL, Zeigler H (1986) Different limiting processes of photosyn-thesis in lichens. In: Marcelle R, Clitjers H, Poucke MV (eds) Biological control of photosynthesis. Nijhoff, Dortrecht pp 234–238
Maguas C, Griffiths H, Ehleringer J, Serodio J (1993) Characterization of photobiont associations in lichens using carbon isotope discrimination techniques. In: Ehleringer J, Hall A, Farquhar G, (eds) Stable isotopes and plant carbon-water relations. Academic Press London, New York, pp 201–212
McKay RML, Gibbs SP (1989) Immunocytochemical localization of ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase in light limited and light saturated cells of Chlorella pyrenoidosa. Protoplasma 149: 31–37
McKay RML, Gibbs SP (1991a) Composition and function of pyrenoids: cytochemical and immunocytochemical approaches. Can J Bot 69: 1040–1052
McKay RML, Gibbs SP (1991b) Immunocytochemical localization of phosphoribulokinase in microalgae. Bot Acta 104: 367–373
Mckay RML, Lichtle C, Gibbs SP (1992) Immunocytochemical characterization of the intrapyrenoid thylakoids of cryptomonads. J Phycol 28: 64–68
Moroney JV, Kitayama M, Togasaki RK, Tolbert NE (1987) Evidence for inorganic carbon transport by intact chloroplasts of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Plant Physiol 83: 460–463
Murakami S (1992) Structural and functional organization of the thylakoid membrane system in photosynthetic apparatus. J Electron Microsc 41: 424–433
Palmqvist K, Samuelsson G, Badger, MR (1994) Photobiont related differences in carbon acquisition among green-algal lichens. Planta 195: 70–79
Palmqvist K, Sultermeyer D, Baldet P, Andrews J, Badger MR (1995) Characterisation of inorganic carbon fluxes, carbonic anhydrase(s) and ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase-oxygenase in the green unicellular alga Coccomyxa. Planta 197: 352–361
Penuelas J (1985) HOC -3 as an exogenous carbon source for the aquatic bryophytes Fontinalis antipyretica and Fissid grandifrons. J Exp Bot 36: 441–448
Proctor MCF, Raven JA, Rice SK (1992) Stable carbon isotope discrimination measurements in Sphagnum and other bryophytes. J Bryol 17: 193–202
Pronina NA, Semenenko VE (1992) The role of pyrenoid in concentration, generation and fixation of carbon dioxide in chloroplasts of microalgae. Fiziol Rast 39: 723–732
Ramazanov Z, Rawat M, Matthews SW, Mason CB, Moroney JV (1993) Role of the pyrenoid in the carbon dioxide concentrating mechanism in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Plant Physiol 102: 140–145
Raven JA (1985) The CO2 concentrating mechanism. In: Lucas WJ, Berry JA (eds) Inorganic carbon uptake by aquatic photosynthetic organisms. The American Society of Plant Physiologists, Rockville, Md, pp 67–81
Raven JA (1991) Implications of inorganic carbon utilization: ecology, evolution and geochemistry. Can J Bot 69: 908–924
Raven JA, Sprent JI (1989) Phototrophy, diazotrophy and paleoatmospheres: biological catalysis and the H, C, N, and O cycles. J Geol Soc London 146: 161–170
Rice SK, Giles L (1994) Climate in the Pleistocene. Nature 371: 111–112
Ronen R, Galun M (1984) Pigment extraction from lichens with dimethyl sulfonamide (DMSO) and estimation of chlorophyll degradation. Environ Exp Bot 24: 239–245
Rundel PW, Stichler W, Zander RH, Zeigler H (1979) Carbon and hydrogen isotope ratios of bryophytes from arid and humid regions. Oecologia 44: 91–94
Smith EC and Griffiths H (1996) The occurrence of the chloroplast pyrenoid is correlated with the activity of a CO2-concentrating mechanism and carbon isotope discrimination in lichens and bryophtes. Planta 198: 6–16
Stewart WDP, Rodgers GA (1978) Studies on the symbiotic blue green algae of Anthoceros, Blasia and Peltigera. Ecol Bull (Stockholm) 26: 247–259
Sultermeyer DF, Miller A, Espie GS, Fock HP, Canvin DT (1989) Active CO2 transport by the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Plant Physiol 89: 1213–1219
Teeri JA (1981) Stable carbon isotope studies of moses and lichens growing in xeric and moist habitats. Bryologist 84: 82–84
Vaughn KC, Campbell EO, Hasegawa J, Owen HA, Renzaglia KS (1990) The pyrenoid is the site of ribulose 1–5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase accumulation in the hornwort (Bryophyta: Anthocerotae) chloroplast. Protoplasma 156: 117–129
Vaughn KC, Ligrone R, Owen HA, Hasegawa J, Campbell EO, Renzaglia KS, Monge-Najera J (1992) The anthocerote chloroplast: a review. New Phytol 120: 169–190
Vogel JC (1993) Variability of carbon isotope fractionation during photosynthesis. In: Ehleringer JR, Hall AE, Farquhar GD (eds) Stable isotopes and plant carbon-water relations. Academic Press, New York, London, pp 29–46
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This work was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (GR3/8813) and the Leverhulme Trust. We thank Prof. A. Roy Perry (National Museum of Wales, Cardiff), Dr. B. Coppins and Mr. D. Long (Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh) for access to herbarium specimens and Mr. M. Fletcher for providing living bryophytes.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Smith, E.C., Griffiths, H. A pyrenoid-based carbon-concentrating mechanism is present in terrestrial bryophytes of the class Anthocerotae. Planta 200, 203–212 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00208310
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00208310