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C3, C4, and CAM Compared

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State

C3, C4, and CAM plants all fix carbon with RuBisCO in the Calvin cycle, but differ in how — or when — they keep RuBisCO's local environment carbon-rich enough to avoid photorespiration.

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CAM's day/night separation and C4's mesophyll/bundle-sheath separation both solve photorespiration; neither approach makes C3 photosynthesis obsolete.