Introduction
Description of C3 plants
C3 plants undergo Calvin cycle to fix carbon dioxide into carbohydrates. In the first step of this cycle, are known as C3 plants. In the first step of the cycle CO2 reacts with RuBP to produce two 3-carbon molecules of 3-phosphoglyceric acid (3-PGA). This is the origin of C3 in the process for the cycle and for the plants that use this cycle.
Description of C4 Plants
A plant that utilizes the C4 carbon fixation pathway in which the CO2 is first bound to a phosphoenolpyruvate in mesophyll cell resulting in the formation of four-carbon compound (oxaloacetate) that is shuttled to the bundle sheath cell where it will be decarboxylated to liberate the CO2 to be utilized in the C3 pathway.A plant in which the CO2 is first fixed into a compound containing four carbon atoms before entering the Calvin cycle of photosynthesis.
Carbon dioxide comes into the plant via stomata.The CO2 then enters the mesophyll cells. the preliminary fixation of CO2 into a molecule called malate.CO2 is released from malate in the bundle sheath cells, where it is fixed again by Rubisco and the Calvin-Benson cycle. The PEP is then recycled back to the mesophyll cells, and the carbohydrate products of photosynthesis are distributed through the plant.
5. Most small seeded cereal crops such as rice, wheat, barley, rye, oat, soybean, peanut, cotton, sugar beets, tobacco, spinach, and potato. Most trees and lawn grasses such as rye, fescue, and Kentucky bluegrass undergo C3 photosynthesis (Calvin cycle).
6. Examples of C4 species are the economically important crops corn or maize (Zea mays), sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), and millets, as well as the switchgrass (Panicum virganum) which has been utilized as a source of biofuel.
7. C3 plants are found in temperate climates
8. C4 plants are found in hot climates with high daytime temperatures andintense sunlight
9. The difference between C3 and C4 plants is that C4 plants make a four-carbon sugar during the Calvin cycle instead of two three-carbon sugars as in C3 plants. This larger sugar in C4 plants brings more CO2 to the RuBisCO enzyme, reducing oxygen levels and making the process energy-intensive. More CO2 is brought into the process because of how cells are located.
Citation
http://www.cropsreview.com/c3-photosynthesis.html
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/biology/phoc.html
http://w3.marietta.edu/~spilatrs/biol103/photolab/c4photo.html
http://www.majordifferences.com/2014/03/difference-between-c3-and-c4-pl…