martin_r

Charon, are you saying, that the guy i debated, he doesn't know what he is talking about ? And that his photo-respiration argument does not make sense in regards to "more or less complex" ? I apologize, English is not my first language, so perhaps i misunderstood something...

Charon, perhaps you don't entirely understand my question, in my debate, the other guy's argument was, that C3 photo-respiration is a set of very complex processes. C4 photosynthesis excluded these very complex processes of photo-respiration, the photo-respiration is no longer needed in C4, so, the C4 is less complex than C3. Is this a good argument ? Can C4 photosynthesis be considered less complex ?

Charon, could you briefly comment on this ? "i was told, that the C4 excluded a very complex photo-respiration step, therefore, the C4 is less complex ..."

Hello, i am looking for a plant-biology expert, what would you say ? Which one is more complex? C3 or C4 photosynthesis ? I had a debate with a guy who has an education in plant biology, and i was told that C4 photosynthesis is a sort of C3-downgrade ... i was told, that the C4 excluded a very complex photo-respiration step, therefore, the C4 is less complex, it is a 'C3 downgrade' and easy to evolve 60+ times over and over (by convergent evolution) However, from what i could understand, the C4 is more complex, because there are newly evolved steps, newly evolved specialized cell anatomy, which seems to be more complex... So which one is more complex? Could the C4 be considered as a C3-downgrade ? Could some plant-biology expert comment on this? Thank you! .