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Endogenous rhythms and chaos in crassulacean acid metabolism

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Abstract

Endogenous free-running regular circadian oscillations of net CO2 exchange in the crassulacean-acidmetabolism (CAM) plant Kalanchoë daigremontiana Hamet et Perrier de la Bâthie under constant external conditions in continuous light have been shown to change to irregular non-predictable (chaotic) time behaviour as irradiance or temperature are raised above a critical level. A model of CAM has been constructed with pools of major metabolites of varying concentrations, flows of metabolites leading to exchange between pools, metabolite transformations determined by chemical reactions, and feedback regulations. The model is described by a system of coupled non-linear differential equations. It shows stable rhythmicity in normal dark-light cycles and in continuous light and, like the K. daigremontiana leaves in the experiments, a change to chaos as irradiance is increased. The maintenance of endogenous oscillations in the model is brought about by a hysteresis switch or beat oscillator between two stable oscillation modes. In CAM these stable modes are vacuolar malate accumulation and remobilization. The model shows that the physical nature of the beat oscillator in the leaves can be explained by the balance between active and passive transport at the tonoplast.

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Abbreviations

CAM:

crassulacean acid metabolism

D:

dark period

DL:

12:12 h dark-light rhythm

L:

light period

LL:

constant illumination

PPFD:

photosynthetic photon flux density

TL :

leaf temperature

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Botanik, Technische Hochschule Darmstadt, Schnittspahnstrasse 3, W-6100, Darmstadt, Federal Republic of Germany

    Ulrich Lüttge

  2. Institut für Kernphysik, Technische Hochschule Darmstadt, Schloßgartenstrasse 9, W-6100, Darmstadt, Federal Republic of Germany

    Friedrich Beck

Authors
  1. Ulrich Lüttge
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  2. Friedrich Beck
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Additional information

It is a great pleasure to thank Dr. G.-H. Vieweg, (Roßdorf, FRG) for his long-lasting efforts to have the phytotron in Darmstadt erected and for his persistent involvement during the various phases of planning and building. This made the present experiments possible. Dr. D. Kramer is thanked for all the time he spends to maintain functioning of the facility. Dr. P. Keller and Ms. Erika Ball assisted with the gas-exchange technology and helped with the surveillance of the long-running experiments, and Ms. Erika Ball performed all the integrations. Ms. Doris Schäfer is thanked for drawing the gas-exchange curves for publication. We are also most grateful to Professor Chr. Giersch and Professor M. Kluge (both Institut für Botanik, Technische Hochschule Darmstadt, FRG) for valuable discussions.

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Lüttge, U., Beck, F. Endogenous rhythms and chaos in crassulacean acid metabolism. Planta 188, 28–38 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00198936

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00198936

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