The Effect of Photosynthetic Pathways on Rubisco DNA and Protein Expression
C4 plant - www.google.com CAM plant - www.google.com C3 Plant - www.climateprogress.org
Carbon fixation pathways differ between plants that are defined as either C3, C4, and CAM. The evolution toward C4 and CAM carbon fixation in plants is seen as an improvement due to the lack of carbon fixation efficiency using Rubisco in C3 plants. We hypothesized that C4 and CAM plants will have a higher expression of Rubisco than C3 plants due to the differences in their carbon fixation pathways. DNA as well as protein was extracted from Impatiens walleriana (C3), Zea mays (C4), and Kalanchoe prolifera (CAM). Western Blot analysis and SDS PAGE were used to detect the amount of the Rubisco protein that was present. Quantification of the amount of the Rubisco Large Subunit gene (RBCL) was done using real-time PCR and agarose gel electrophoresis. Results illustrated that C3 plants had higher concentrations of Rubisco than both C4 and CAM plants, verified both by Western Blot analysis and real-time PCR. Subtle differences in the presence of Rubisco were only viewed between C4 and CAM plants, while the C3 plant was far different. More extensive analysis could be performed in the future using a wider range of plants species to determine if carbon fixation pathways are potentially species specific.