Bananas.org - View Single Post

Chironex · 01-08-2009, 05:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nicolas Naranja

I'll let wikipedia do the job

C3
C3 carbon fixation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Photorespiration
Photorespiration - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Take home message is that C3(Beans, Bananas, Rice) plants fix carbon for photosynthesis using a a 3-carbon sugar while C4(Sugarcane, Maize, Sorghum) plants use a 4-carbon sugar. Yet another type of carbon fixation would be CAM(Pineapple, Agave, Cactus) Photorespiration is bad because it uses carbon dioxide in a way that does not make the plant grow.

That was enlightening, thanks! So by increasing CO2 to our banana plants, we are helping them grow by reducing photorespiration, which in turn causes more efficient photosynthesis by avoiding oxygen uptake.

So, other than putting our plants in an iron lung filled with CO@, what other things can we do to reduce photorespiration from occurring, if anything?