Effects of Light Quantity and Quality on the Decarboxylation of Malic Acid in Crassulacean Acid Metabolism Photosynthesis

The rate of malic acid consumption in the Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) plant Kalanchoë daigremontiana Hamet et Perrier was found to be more rapid than the rate of photosynthetic oxygen evolution under all levels of irradiation by white light. This accounts for the accumulation of carbon dioxide in CAM tissues in the light.Action spectra of malate consumption and photosynthetic oxygen evolution in Kalanchoë were similar. Experiments using monochromatic photosynthetically active light in addition to a range of narrow waveband irradiations demonstrated that malic acid consumption in the experiments from which the action spectrum of acid consumption was constructed was not limited by the rate of photosynthesis. These data indicate that light involved in the promotion of malate consumption in CAM is absorbed by the same pigments that absorb the light which powers photosynthesis.