Photoautotrophic growth of soybean cells in suspension culture III. Characterization of carbon fixation products under high and low CO2 levels

Abstract

A photoautotrophic soybean suspension culture (SB-P) was used to study CO2 assimilation while exposed to elevated or ambient CO2 levels. These studies showed that under elevated CO2 (5% v/v) malate is the dominant fixation product, strongly suggesting that phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPCase) is the primary enzyme involved in carbon fixation in these cells under their normal growth conditions. Citrate and [aspartate + glutamate] were also significant fixation products during fifteen minutes of exposure to 14CO2. During the ten minute unlabeled CO2 chase however, 14C-malate continued to increase while citrate and [aspartate + glutamate] declined. Fixation of 14CO2 under ambient CO2 levels (0.037%) showed a very different product pattern as 3-phosphoglycerate was very high in the first one to two minutes followed by increases in [serine + glycine] and [aspartate + glutamate]. Hexose phosphates were also quite high initially but then declined relatively rapidly. Thus, the carbon fixation pattern at ambient CO2 levels resembles somewhat that seen in C3 leaf cells while that seen at elevated CO2 levels more closely resembles that of a C4 plant. The initial fixation product of C3 plants, 3-PGA, was never detectable under high CO2 conditions. These data suggest that an in vitro photoautotrophic system would be suitable for studying carbon fixation physiology during photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic growth.