title: Toward systems-level analysis of agricultural production from crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM): scaling from cell to commercial production.
abstract: Systems-level analyses have become prominent tools for assessing the yield, viability, economic consequences and environmental impacts of agricultural production. Such analyses are well-developed for many commodity crops that are used for food and biofuel, but have not been developed for agricultural production systems based on drought-tolerant plants that use crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM). We review the components of systems-level evaluations, and identify the information available for completing such analyses for CAM cropping systems. Specific needs for developing systems-level evaluations of CAM agricultural production include: improvement of physiological models; assessment of product processing after leaving the farm gate; and application of newly available genetic tools to the optimization of CAM species for commercial production.
authors.affiliation: Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs and Department of Environmental and Plant Biology, Ohio University, Athens, OH, 45701, USA.
authors.forename: Sarah C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA.|FAFU and UIUC-SIB Joint Center for Genomics and Biotechnology, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian, China.
authors.forename: Ray
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ming
authors.affiliation: Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA.
authors.forename: David S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: LeBauer
authors.affiliation: Department of Plant Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA.|Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA.|Department of Crop Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA.
authors.forename: Stephen P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Long
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D027882:Agave / Q000378:metabolism; D000383:Agriculture; D031230:Ananas / Q000378:metabolism; D018556:Crops, Agricultural / Q000378:metabolism*; D055864:Droughts; D008954:Models, Biological; D010788:Photosynthesis; D013597:Systems Analysis; D014867:Water / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D014867:Water
keywords: Agave; Ananas comosus; bioenergy; bioproducts; crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM); life-cycle; physiological model; pineapple