Salt Requirement for Crassulacean Acid Metabolism in the Annual Succulent, Mesembryanthemum crystallinum

Abstract

In experiments with the facultative Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) species, Mesembryanthemum crystallinum, only plants which received high levels of inorganic salts fixed substantial amounts of CO(2) by the CAM pathway. Equivalent osmolarities of polyethylene glycol 6000 did not yield any CAM fixation. Plant water potential and turgor pressure had no detectable influence on the amount of CAM fixation. These observations rule out the possibility that the inorganic ions were acting as osmotic agents.Carbon dioxide and water exchange analysis showed that when water supply was not limiting, salt-deprived plants sustained higher reductive pentose phosphate cycle carbon fixation rates than salt-treated plants. Under water stress conditions, salt-deprived plants using only the reductive pentose phosphate cycle pathway assimilated less carbon and were less efficient in their water use than salt-treated plants using predominately the CAM pathway. These results support the hypothesis that the ability to use the CAM pathway reduces the capacity for reductive pentose phosphate cycle fixation but permits higher productivity in water-limited environments.