Toward systems-level analysis of agricultural production from crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM): Scaling from cell to commercial production

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.