Metabolism and Detoxification of Nitrogen Dioxide and Ammonia in Plants

Abstract

One (T.Y.) of the authors studied NO2 uptake and metabolism in plants from 1976 to 1979 in the National Institute of Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, and most of the results were published by 1980. After about 17 years, we have been asked to write a review on NO2 metabolism in plants. The task has become considerably easier with the joining of the coauthors (H.M., H.S.S.), who have been actively engaged in the study of plant responses to NO2 during the past. It has been interesting to discuss what was known up to 1980 and what has become known since then about NO2 metabolism and detoxification in plants. In addition, another nitrogen-containing but reduced form of gas, NH3, is also included in this chapter in the hope that a comparison of the behavior and fate of oxidized and reduced gases in plants may provide further insight into their metabolic and regulatory pathways.