CAM (Crassulacean Acid Metabolism)
Certain succulents in desert
Uses C4 pathways, but
- segregates CO2 assimilation and Calvin cycle between day and night
Process
- CAM plants open their stomates at night - conserve H2O
- assimilate CO2 in the form of 4-C OAA and malic acid, which leaf tissues store in high concentrations in vacuoles within cells
- during day, stomates close, stored malic acids are gradually recycled to release CO2 to the Calvin cycle