Phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) is the primary C O 2 acceptor in:

Phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) is the primary CO2 acceptor in:
  1. $C_{3}$ plants
  2. $C_{4}$ plants
  3. $C_{2}$ plants
  4. $C_{3}$ and $C_{4}$ plants

Solution

PEP is a $3C$ compound which serves as primary $CO_2$ acceptor in the mesophyll cell cytoplasm of $C_4$ plants like Maize, Sugarcane, \textit{Sorghum} etc. PEP is able to rapidly fix carbon at very low concentrations of hydrogen carbonate in presence of Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase enzyme the addition of bicarbonate $(HCO_3^-)$ to phosphoenolpyruvate $(PEP)$ to form the four-carbon compound oxaloacetate and inorganic phosphate $PEP + HCO_3^- \rightarrow oxaloacetate + Pi$

Asked in: NEET 2017

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