The first stable product of photosynthesis in C₄ plants is

Options

(a) phosphoglyceric acid
(b) ribulose-1-5-bisphosphate
(c) PGAL
(d) malic acid

Correct Answer:

malic acid

Explanation:

In C₄ plants the leaf cells have two types of chloroplasts. The mesophyll cells of the leaf possess smaller chloroplasts that have well-defined grana but do not accumulate starch. The mesophyll cells of C₄ plants exhibit high activity of phosphoenol pyruvate (PEP) carboxylase, which catalyses the reaction of CO₂ with PEP to form oxaloacetic acid (through C₄ cycle) which later reduced to malic acid. Malic acid is then translocated to bundle sheath cell for further decarboxylation. Within the bundle sheat