PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) is an adaptation to environments where water availability is seasonal or extremely low. It serves to ensure survival and/ or maintain productivity in these adverse environments. CAM has repeatedly evolved although it requires a large and complex set of enzymes and transporters and regulatory processes to control metabolite flux and pools. To test potential regulatory levels, we analyze the CAM plant Kalanchoë laxiflora embedded in the context of available CAM genome and transcriptome sequences. We show that CAM associated transcripts and proteins do not show a binary on/off pattern between day and night in K. laxiflora. Instead, we observe that many CAM plants display shared amino acid changes compared to C3 plants especially in starch metabolism. Phosphoproteomics identifies phosphoproteome changes in K. laxiflora between day and night. Taken together, the analyses demonstrate the CAM photosynthesis is regulated at the levels of transcripts and proteins.