Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) is a water-use efficient adaptation of photosynthesis that has evolved independently many times in diverse lineages of flowering plants. We hypothesize that convergent evolution of protein sequence and temporal gene expression underpins the independent emergences of CAM from C3 photosynthesis. To test this hypothesis, we generate a de novo genome assembly and genome-wide transcript expression data for Kalanchoë fedtschenkoi, an obligate CAM species within the core eudicots with a relatively small genome (~260 Mb). Our comparative analyses identify signatures of convergence in protein sequence and re-scheduling of diel transcript expression of genes involved in nocturnal CO2 fixation, stomatal movement, heat tolerance, circadian clock, and carbohydrate metabolism in K. fedtschenkoi and other CAM species in comparison with non-CAM species. These findings provide new insights into molecular convergence and building blocks of CAM and will facilitate CAM-into-C3 photosynthesis engineering to enhance water-use efficiency in crops.

Auxin plays an essential role in root development. It has been a long-held dogma that auxin required for root development is mainly transported from shoots into roots by polarly localized auxin transporters. However, it is known that auxin is also synthesized in roots. Here we demonstrate that a group of YUCCA (YUC) genes, which encode the rate-limiting enzymes for auxin biosynthesis, plays an essential role in Arabidopsis root development. Five YUC genes (YUC3, YUC5, YUC7, YUC8 and YUC9) display distinct expression patterns during root development. Simultaneous inactivation of the five YUC genes (yucQ mutants) leads to the development of very short and agravitropic primary roots. The yucQ phenotypes are rescued by either adding 5 nM of the natural auxin, IAA, in the growth media or by expressing a YUC gene in the roots of yucQ. Interestingly, overexpression of a YUC gene in shoots in yucQ causes the characteristic auxin overproduction phenotypes in shoots; however, the root defects of yucQ are not rescued. Our data demonstrate that localized auxin biosynthesis in roots is required for normal root development and that auxin transported from shoots is not sufficient for supporting root elongation and root gravitropic responses.

Summary Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) is a specialized mode of photosynthesis that features nocturnal CO2 uptake, facilitates increased water‐use efficiency (WUE), and enables CAM plants to inhabit water‐limited environments such as semi‐arid deserts or seasonally dry forests. Human population growth and global climate change now present challenges for agricultural production systems to increase food, feed, forage, fiber, and fuel production. One approach to meet these challenges is to increase reliance on CAM crops, such as Agave and Opuntia, for biomass production on semi‐arid, abandoned, marginal, or degraded agricultural lands. Major research efforts are now underway to assess the productivity of CAM crop species and to harness the WUE of CAM by engineering this pathway into existing food, feed, and bioenergy crops. An improved understanding of CAM has potential for high returns on research investment. To exploit the potential of CAM crops and CAM bioengineering, it will be necessary to elucidate the evolution, genomic features, and regulatory mechanisms of CAM. Field trials and predictive models will be required to assess the productivity of CAM crops, while new synthetic biology approaches need to be developed for CAM engineering. Infrastructure will be needed for CAM model systems, field trials, mutant collections, and data management.

Already a proven mechanism for drought resilience, crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) is a specialized type of photosynthesis that maximizes water-use efficiency by means of an inverse (compared to C 3 and C 4 photosynthesis) day/ night pattern of stomatal closure/opening to shift CO 2 uptake to the night, when evapotranspiration rates are low. A systems-level understanding of temporal molecular and metabolic controls is needed to define the cellular behaviour underpinning CAM. Here, we report high-resolution temporal behaviours of transcript, protein and metabolite abundances across a CAM diel cycle and, where applicable, compare the observations to the well-established C 3 model plant Arabidopsis. A mechanistic finding that emerged is that CAM operates with a diel redox poise that is shifted relative to that in Arabidopsis. Moreover, we identify widespread rescheduled expression of genes associated with signal transduction mechanisms that regulate stomatal opening/closing. Controlled production and degradation of transcripts and proteins represents a timing mechanism by which to regulate cellular function, yet knowledge of how this molecular timekeeping regulates CAM is unknown. Here, we provide new insights into complex post-transcriptional and -translational hierarchies that govern CAM in Agave. These data sets provide a resource to inform efforts to engineer more efficient CAM traits into economically valuable C 3 crops.T he water-use efficiency of Agave spp. hinges on crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM), a specialized mode of photosynthesis that evolved from ancestral C 3 photosynthesis in response to water and CO 2 limitation 1 and is found in ∼6.5% of higher plants. Whereas C 3 photosynthesis produces a three-carbon (3-C) molecule for carbon fixation during the day, CAM generates a four-carbon organic acid from carbon fixation at night. In CAM, this nocturnal carboxylation reaction is catalysed by phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC), and the 3-C substrate phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) is supplied by the glycolytic breakdown of carbohydrate formed during the previous day. The nocturnally accumulated malic acid is stored overnight in a central vacuole, and during the subsequent day malate is decarboxylated to release CO 2 at an elevated concentration for Rubisco in the chloroplast. The diel separation of carboxylases in CAM is accompanied by an inverse (compared with C 3 and C 4 photosynthesis-performing species) day/night pattern of stomatal closure/ opening that results in improved water-use efficiency (CO 2 fixed per unit water lost) that is up to sixfold higher than that of C 3 photosynthesis plants and up to threefold higher than that of C 4 photosynthesis plants under comparable conditions 2 .The frequent emergence of CAM from C 3 photosynthesis throughout evolutionary history implies that all of the enzymes required for CAM are homologues of ancestral forms found in C 3 species 1,3 . As such, the CAM pathway has been identified as a target for synthetic biology because it offers the potential to engin...