Activities of Carbon and Nitrogen Metabolism Enzymes during Germinating Sorghum Seeds and Early Seedlings Growth

Abstract

Carbon and nitrogen metabolism are regulated by complex mechanisms in order to optimize growth and development of plants and play a major role during germination and post-germinative growth. The objective of the current work was to establish the degree of changes in activities of key enzymes implicated in these two metabolism pathways during germination and post-germinative growth such as; glutamine synthetase, glutamate dehydrogenase, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase, malate dehydrogenase, isocitrate dehydrogenase and aspartate aminotransferase. We have observed that during germination and seedlings development the most activities of nitrogen and carbon metabolism enzymes were correlated (nearly show similar kinetic changes) and influenced by their cellular environment and developmental stage. Therefore, higher activities of these enzymes were observed in the seed, root and shoot at early stages of the post-germinative phase could be effectively linked to the demand of de novo proteins to ensure a good development of seedlings.