Abstract:

Plants can be classified into three types such as C3, C4, and CAM plant according to their CO2 assimilation mechanisms. C4 plant acquired a series of high performance photosynthetic genes in evolution, which confers to more efficient photosynthesis than C3 plant under adverse conditions such as high photo-intensity, temperature, and oxygen partial pressure. It’s been a hot area in crop breeding to introduce C4 high performance genes into C3 plant, including many agronomically important crop species, to improve their yield. In this article, we reviewed the CO2 assimilation characteristic of C4 plant and its application in crop yield improvement. The physiological characteristic of C3 transgenic plant with C4 genes was introduced and the possibility in introducing C4 photosynthetic pathway into C3 plant was also discussed.