[The mechanisms of plant photosynthetic acclimation to elevated CO2 concentration]

When measured at a same CO(2) concentration, net photosynthetic rate is often significantly lower in long-term high CO(2)-grown plants than the ambient CO(2)-grown ones. This phenomenon is termed photosynthetic acclimation or down-regulation. Although there have been many reports and reviews, the mechanism(s) of the photosynthetic acclimation is not very clear. Combining the work of the authors' group, this paper briefly reviews the progress in studies on the mechanism(s) of the photosynthetic acclimation to elevated CO(2). It is suggested that besides the possible effects of respiration enhancement and excessive photosynthate accumulation, RuBP carboxylation limitation and RuBP regeneration limitation are probably the main factors leading to the photosynthetic acclimation.