The discovery and importance of C4 photosynthesis

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Introduction
Life and survival of all living things on earth are directly related to photosynthesis. Without this important process there would be no oxygen thus any life. Silverstein, Silverstein, and Nunn defines Photosynthesis as the process by which plants use chlorophyll to transform solar energy into easily retrievable storage units, can be divided into three different types: C3, C4 and CAM photosynthesis (Silverstein, Silverstein, and Nunn, 5). The difference between the three types is the manner and location in which photosynthesis takes place, and each has its benefits and disadvantages
Photosynthesis not only supplies oxygen which we all know is crucial for being alive but also supplies energy and food to all. Almost all the living organisms on this planet, Earth, it is only the plants that are capable of generating their own food and hence energy from it. No any other creature including man can create their own food but all depends of the plants for survival. Therefore, in the process of producing energy the plants supply all the required nutrients and energy either directly or indirectly to the other living organisms. In reference to the mentioned facts above it is very evident that photosynthesis has a great role I the process of regulating life cycle on the earth.
This paper seeks to analysis the discovery of the C4 photosynthesis and its importance to the world in large.
The types of photosynthesis
Different ecosystems of the world suit different types of plants depending on their adaptability. As a result we have the three types of photosynthesis: C3, C4 and CAM (crassulacean acid metabolism) photosynthesis. The plants that are located in areas with less light and rainfall normally use C3 photosynthesis. However, they can use the C4 photosynthesis in some cases. Plants in these severe areas need to close their stomata which will help in reducing water loss. Closing of the stomata means the amount of carbon dioxide flow is limited hence build up of a large amount of oxygen (Hall and Rao, 103).
Other plants use the C4 photosynthesis process, such plants includes maize, wheat and rice. These plants use these kinds of photosynthesis because they possess a special anatomy that is not the same as the other plants. For instance, in C4 plants have photosynthetic cells that cluster around the leaf veins and have no air spaces around the photosynthetic cells (Hall and Rao, 103).
Lastly is the CAM photosynthesis which most of the plants that is located in dry and hot climates use. In this case, the stomata open only at night when the weather is contusive. It then uses see three molecules in order to fix carbon dioxide and form C4 molecules. During the day it closes the stomata to reduce water lose to the environment (Hall and Rao, 103).
The discovery of C4 photosynthesis
The discovery began ideally back in 1954 where an annual report of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association Experiment Station stated the issue with less authority. The report noted how some compounds other than what was known, 3-phosphoglyceric acid (3- PGA), were rapidly labeled 14CO2 assimilation by sugarcane leaves. An advancement study identified malate and aspartate amongst the early labeled products and later a third labeled compound phosphomalate was later shown to be 3-PGA. The following year the good report was mentioned in Hawaiian Academy of Science (Govindjee et al, 876) and above all George Burr wrote a paper about it which was tabled in same year at Pacific Science Congress on the use of radioisotopes in the Hawaiian sugar industry. For the first time the proceedings of the meeting were published in the International Journal of Applied Radiation and Isotopes (Govindjee, 876)
In 1956, the pathway through which plants fix CO2 into organic acids was expounded (Raghavendra and Sage, 9). The consequently named Calvin-Benson or C3 cycle uses the enzyme ribulose-1, 5-bis-phosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) to fix CO2 into the three-carbon compound 3-phosphoglycerate. Ideally scientists were of the view that the Calvin-Benson cycle accounted for CO2 assimilation in all plants. Nevertheless, further 14CO2 labeling experiments showed that in maize and sugarcane, the four-carbon compounds malate and Asp were among the earliest labeled products (Raghavendra and Sage, 10). This discovery was paramount but its findings was not fully comprehended until M.D. Hatch and C.R. Slack proposed a model for the C4 dicarboxylic acid pathway, in this model the CO2 is initially fixed into a four-carbon ...