text: The three most important roles that PEP carboxylase plays in plants and bacteria metabolism are in the  cycle, the CAM cycle, and the citric acid cycle biosynthesis flux.
  The primary mechanism of carbon dioxide assimilation in plants is through the enzyme ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (also known as RuBisCO), that adds CO to ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate (a 5 carbon sugar), to form two molecules of 3-phosphoglycerate (2x3 carbon sugars). However, at higher temperatures and lower CO concentrations, RuBisCO adds oxygen instead of carbon dioxide, to form the unusable product glycolate in a process called photorespiration. To prevent this wasteful process, plants increase the local CO concentration in a process called the  cycle. PEP carboxylase plays the key role of binding CO in the form of bicarbonate with PEP to create oxaloacetate in the mesophyll tissue. This is then converted back to pyruvate (through a malate intermediate), to release the CO in the deeper layer of bundle sheath cells for carbon fixation by RuBisCO and the Calvin cycle. Pyruvate is converted back to PEP in the mesophyll cells, and the cycle begins again, thus actively pumping CO.
  The second important and very similar biological significance of PEP carboxylase is in the CAM cycle. This cycle is common in organisms living in arid habitats. Plants cannot afford to open stomata during the day to take in CO, as they would lose too much water by transpiration. Instead, stomata open at night, when water evaporation is minimal, and take in CO by fixing with PEP to form oxaloacetate though PEP carboxylase. Oxaloacetate is converted to malate by malate dehydrogenase, and stored for use during the day when the light dependent reaction generates energy (mainly in the form of ATP) and reducing equivalents such as NADPH to run the Calvin cycle.
  Third, PEP carboxylase is significant in non-photosynthetic metabolic pathways. Figure 3 shows this metabolic flow (and its regulation). Similar to pyruvate carboxylase, PEP carboxylase replenishes oxaloacetate in the citric acid cycle. At the end of glycolysis, PEP is converted to pyruvate, which is converted to acetyl-coenzyme-A (acetyl-CoA), which enters the citric acid cycle by reacting with oxaloacetate to form citrate. To increase flux through the cycle, some of the PEP is converted to oxaloacetate by PEP carboxylase. Since the citric acid cycle intermediates provide a hub for metabolism, increasing flux is important for the biosynthesis of many molecules, such as for example amino acids.