Scientists from the University of Western Australia discovered how
plants control the amount of carbon from photosynthesis that they store
to build biomass using a metabolic channel. This is a relatively rare
plant ability that was found to break the normal rules of biochemistry
and has the potential to help mitigate climate change.

Scientists have dubbed the previously unknown process as �??secret
decisions�?� that plants make when releasing carbon into the atmosphere.
While investigating the plant/Arabidopsis thaliana/, researchers found
that plants control how much carbon from photosynthesis they keep to
build biomass using a metabolic channel during respiration.
Specifically, this happens right before plants burn the compound
pyruvate as the scientists found evidence that the plant can track the
source of the pyruvate and choose whether to release it or store it for
usage. According to scientists, pyruvate is the last point of the
plant's decision to either burn it and release carbon dioxide or use it
to build phospholipids for plant oils, amino acids, and other biomass
products.

The scientists were astounded by the discovery as it does not follow the
typical biochemistry rules where every reaction is a competition and the
processes do not control where the product goes. It gives light to
understanding how plants store carbon dioxide during the metabolic
process and paves the way for future research to develop plants that can
store carbon longer thereby increasing the chances of mitigating climate
change challenges.

Metabolic evidence for distinct pyruvate pools inside plant mitochondria
| Nature Plants [www.nature.com]