The metabolic pathway of primary carbon fixation was studied in a peculiar pennate marine diatom, Haslea ostrearia (Bory) Simonsen, which synthesizes and accumulates a blue pigment known as "marennine". Cells were cultured in a semi-continuous mode under saturating [350 µmol(photon) m-2 s-1] or non-saturating [25 µmol(photon) m-2 s-1] irradiance producing "blue" (BC) and "green" (GC) cells, characterized by high and low marennine accumulation, respectively. Growth, pigment contents (chlorophyll a and marennine), 14C accumulation in the metabolites, and the carbonic anhydrase (CA) activity of the cells were determined during the exponential growth phase. Growth rate and marennine content were closely linked to irradiance during growth: higher irradiance increased both growth rate and marennine content. On the other hand, the Chl a concentration was lower under saturating irradiance. The distribution between the Calvin-Benson (C3) and β-carboxylation (C4) pathways was very different depending on the irradiance during growth. Metabolites of the C3 cycle contained about 70 % of the total fixed radioactivity after 60 s of incorporation into cells cultured under the non-saturating irradiance (GC), but only 47 % under saturating irradiance (BC). At the same time, carbon fixation by β-carboxylation was 24 % in GC versus about 41 % in BC, becoming equal to that in the C3 fixation pathway in the latter. Internal CA activity remained constant, but the periplasmic CA activity was higher under low than high irradiance. and M. Rech, A. Morant-Manceau, G. Tremblin.
During batch culture of Haslea ostrearia the highest carbon (14C) fixation rate was found in vivo in cells that did not accumulate the blue pigment marennine (green form). This fixation rate decreased concomitantly with the accumulation of marennine. In vitro, no phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) activity was detected, but nearly equivalent activities of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase (RuBPC) and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK) were found in the green form. However, the activity of RuBPC was lower than that of PEPCK during marennine accumulation. In vitro carboxylase activities were strongly inhibited by the addition of a marennine extract. A full description of this inhibition could not be confirmed within the cells because marennine accumulates in small cytoplasmic vesicles. and G. Tremblin, J.-M. Robert.
Three cultivars of winter hexaploid triticales M2A/JAIN, DF 99/Yogu "S5", and Asseret were grown on nutrient solution with or without 75 mM NaCl. Stomatal permeability and transpiration rate decreased in all salt-stressed triticale cultivars. Net photosynthetic rate (PN) of cv. M2A and Asseret was not affected by NaCl. On the contrary, PN in cv. DF99 was reduced in relation to control plants. A higher water-use efficiency under saline conditions led to better salt tolerance of cv. M2A compared to cvs. Asseret and DF99. and A. Morant-Avice ... [et al.].