Palisade cell Palisade cell Palisade cells are plant cells located in leaves, right below the epidermis and cuticle. They are vertically elongated, a different shape from the spongy mesophyll cells beneath them in the leaf. Their chloroplasts absorb a major portion of the light energy used by the leaf. Palisade cells occur in dicotyledonous plants, and also in the net-veined monocots, the Araceae and Dioscoreaceae. Palisade cells contain the largest number of chloroplasts per cell, which makes them the primary site of photosynthesis in the leaves of those plants that contain them, converting the energy in light to the chemical energy of
Fractionation of carbon isotopes in oxygenic photosynthesis activity, and variations in cell growth and geometry. The isotopic fractionations of different photosynthetic pathways are uniquely characterized by these factors, as described below. A C3 plant uses C3 carbon fixation, one of the three metabolic photosynthesis pathways which also include C4 and CAM (described below). These plants are called "C3" due to the three-carbon compound (3-Phosphoglyceric acid, or 3-PGA) produced by the CO fixation mechanism in these plants. This C3 mechanism is the first step of the Calvin-Benson cycle, which converts CO and RuBP into 3-PGA. C3 plants are the most common type of plant, and typically thrive under