Ethoxyzolamide repression of the low photorespiration state in two submersed angiosperms

Abstract

Net photosynthesis in the submersed angiosperms Myriophyllum spicatum L. and Hydrilla verticillata (L.f.) Royal was inhibited by 21% O2, but the degree of inhibition was greater for plants in the high than in the low photorespiratory state. Increasing the CO2 concentration from 50 through 2,500 μl l(-1) decreased the O2 inhibition of the high-photorespiration plants in a competitive manner, but it had no effect on the O2 inhibition of plants in the low photorespiratory state. Carbonic-anhydrase activity increased by almost threefold with the induction of the low photorespiratory state. Ethoxyzolamide, an inhibitor of carbonic anhydrase, reduced the net photosynthesis of low-photorespiration Myriophyllum and Hydrilla plants by 40%, but their dark respiration was unaffected. This ethoxyzolamide inhibition of net photosynthesis exhibited a competitive response to CO2 concentration, resulting in a decrease in the apparent affinity of photosynthesis for CO2. The net photosynthesis of plants in the high photorespiratory state was inhibited only slightly by ethoxyzolamide, and this inhibition was independent of the CO2 level. Ethoxyzolamide treatment caused an increase in the O2 inhibition of net photosynthesis of plants in the low photorespiratory state. Ethoxyzolamide increased the low CO2 compensation points of low-photorespiration Myriophyllum and Hydrilla, but the values for the high-photorespiration plants were unchanged. In comparison, the CO2 compensation points of the terrestrial plants Sorghum bicolor (C4), Moricandia arvensis (C3-C4 intermediate) and Nicotiana tabacum (C3) were unaltered by ethoxyzolamide treatment. These data indicate that the low photorespiratory state in Myriophyllum and Hydrilla is repressed by ethoxyzolamide treatment, thus implicating carbonic anhydrase as a component of the photorespiration-reducing mechanism in these plants. The competitive interaction of CO2 with ethoxyzolamide provides evidence that the low photorespiratory state in submersed angiosperms is the result of some type or types of CO2 concentrating mechanism. In Myriophyllum it may be via bicarbonate utilization, but in Hydrilla it probably takes the form of an inducible C4-type system.