The isolation and characterisation of a mutant of the C4 plant Amaranthus edulis deficient in NAD-malic enzyme activity
1998
Dever, L.V. | Pearson, M. | Ireland, R.J. | Leegood, R.C. | Lea, P.J.
A mutant of Amaranthus edulis (Speg.) lacking activity of the C4 leaf form of NAD-malic enzyme (ME; EC 1.1.1.39) has been isolated. Homozygous mutant (5% wild-type ME activity) and heterozygous (50% wild-type ME activity) F2 plants were shown to contain both the alpha and beta NAD-ME subunits in similar amounts to those detected in the wild-type leaves. The rate of photosynthetic CO2 assimilation was reduced in the homozygous mutant to 5% of that observed for the wild-type leaves. Other C4 enzymes were not down-regulated in the mutant plants. There was little difference in photosynthetic rate of the heterozygous plants compared to the wild-type, suggesting that NAD-ME exerts little control over the rate of C4 photosynthesis, and that in the wild-type the enzyme has a very low control coefficient. The activity loss in the heterozygote may therefore be compensated by regulatory mechanisms that increase the activity of the enzyme in vivo. Data for bundle-sheath strands indicated that although the homozygous mutants were able to oxidise malate via the Krebs cycle, they were unable to convert malate to pyruvate and alanine via NAD-ME.
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