Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) was purified from leaves of four species of Alternanthera differing in their photosynthetic carbon metabolism: Alternanthera sessilis (C3), A. pungens (C4), A. ficoides and A. tenella (C3-C4 intermediates or C3-C4). The activity and properties of PEPC were examined at limiting (0.05 mM) or saturating (10 mM) bicarbonate concentrations. The Vmax as well as Km values (for Mg2+ or PEP) of PEPC from A. ficoides and A. tenella (C3-C4 intermediates) were in between those of C3 (A. sessilis) and C4 species (A. pungens). Similarly, the sensitivity of PEPC to malate (an inhibitor) or G-6-P (an activator) of A. ficoides and A. tenella (C3-C4) was also of intermediate status between those of C3 and C4 species of A. sessilis and A. pungens, respectively. In all the four species, the maximal activity (Vmax), affinity for PEP (Km), and the sensitivity to malate (KI) or G-6-P (KA) of PEPC were higher at 10 mM bicarbonate than at 0.05 mM bicarbonate. Again, the sensitivity to bicarbonate of PEPC from C3-C4 intermediates was in between those of C3- and C4-species. Thus the characteristics of PEPC of C3-C4 intermediate species of Alternanthera are intermediate between C3- and C4-type, in both their kinetic and regulatory properties. Bicarbonate could be an important modulator of PEPC, particularly in C4 plants. and Bhaskarrao Chinthapalli ... [et al.].
Responses of photosynthetic gas exchange and chlorophyll (Chl) a fluorescence of three wild soybeans, Glycine soja, G. tomentella, and G. tabacina occurring in different habitats of Taiwan, to four NaCl treatments, 0S, LS, MS, and HS (i.e. 0, 17, 51, and 85 mM NaCl) were compared. In G. soja following exposure to NaCl treatment for one month, the photon saturated photosynthetic rate (PN), the ratio of variable to maximum fluorescence (Fv/Fm), the quantum yield of photosystem 2 (ΦPS2), and the electron transport rate (ETR) decreased dramatically. These reductions increased with increasing concentration of NaCl treatment. Plants of MS and HS treatments did not survive after extending the treatment to two months. Reductions in PN, ΦPS2, and ETR (but not in Fv/Fm) were found in G. tabacina after two months of exposure to MS and HS treatments, but the reduction was not as severe as that in G. soja. In G. tomentella, significant reductions in PN and gs were found only in HS plants after two months of treatment, but no significant differences in Fv/Fm, ΦPS2, and ETR were found among plants of the four treatments. Thus the three wild soybeans in Taiwan have differentiated in their photosynthetic susceptibility to salinity, G. tomentella being the least susceptible, G. soja the most sensitive, and G. tabacina the intermediate. Different mechanisms are attributed to the inhibition effect of salinity on photosynthesis of the three species. and W. Y. Kao, T. T. Tsai, C. N. Shih.