Question
C4 plants have better productivity because
C4 plants absorb more light
C4 plants absorb more CO2
C4 plants lack photorespiration
all of these
Solution
C.
C4 plants lack photorespiration
Presence of photorespiration is considered as a wasteful and energy consuming process in crop plants which ultimately leads to reduction in final yield of crops. It is estimated that during C4 photosynthesis, upto 50% of the CO2 fixed may have to pass through photorespiratory process, thereby resulting in considerable decrease in photosynthetic productivity. In C4 plants, there is some loss of photosynthetic activity on account of photorespiration which is absent in C4 plants and hence they have better productivity.
