Effects of Different Inorganic Nitrogen Sources on Photosynthetic Carbon Metabolism in Primary Leaves of Non-nodulated Phaseolus vulgaris L.

Young bean plants (Phaseolus vulgaris L. var Saxa) were fed with three different types of inorganic nitrogen, after being grown on nitrogen-free nutrient solution for 8 days. The pattern of 14CO2 fixation was investigated in photosynthesizing primary leaf discs of 11-day-old plants (3 days with nitrogen source) and in a pulse-chase experiment in 13-day-old plants (5 days with nitrogen source). Ammonium caused, in contrast to nitrate nutrition, a higher level of 14C incorporation into sugar phosphates but a lower incorporation of label into malate, glycolate, glycerate, aspartate, and alanine. The labeling kinetics of glycine and serine were little changed by the nitrogen source. Ammonium feeding also produced an increase in the ratio of extractable activities of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase to phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase and an increase in dark respiration and the CO2 compensation concentration. Net photosynthesis was higher in plants assimilating nitrate. The results point to stimulated turnover of the photosynthetic carbon reduction cycle metabolites, reduced phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylation, and altered turnover rates within the photosynthetic carbon oxidation cycle in ammonium-fed plants. Mechanisms of the regulation of primary carbon metabolism are proposed and discussed