C4 photosynthesis in Spartina townsendii at low and high temperatures.

The metabolism of (14)CO2 in the cool temperate saltmarsh grass Spartina townsendii was investigated in plants grown in their natural habitats at two temperatures. Both in the spring at 10°C and in the late summer at 25°C radioactivity was initially incorporated into the organic acids malate and aspartate and then transferred to 3-phosphoglycerate in the manner characteristic of the C4 pathway of photosynthesis. Metabolism was not disrupted at the lower temperature as in some C4 plants. Radioactivity was transferred more slowly from malate into alanine, glycine and serine at 10°C, but sugars were labelled equally at both temperatures.