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Plant Physiology 132:2126-2134 (2003) © 2003 American Society of Plant Biologists An Anaplerotic Role for Mitochondrial Carbonic Anhydrase in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii1Dipartimento di Scienze del Mare, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Via Brecce Bianche, 60131 Ancona, Italy (M.G., A.N.); Umeå Plant Science Center, Umeå University, S901 87 Umeå, Sweden (M.F., M.E.); and Division of Environmental and Applied Biology, School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 4HN, United Kingdom (J.A.R.)
Previous studies of the mitochondrial carbonic anhydrase (mtCA) of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii showed that expression of the two genes encoding this enzyme activity required photosynthetically active radiation and a low CO2 concentration. These studies suggested that the mtCA was involved in the inorganic carbon-concentrating mechanism. We have now shown that the expression of the mtCA at low CO2 concentrations decreases when the external NH4+ concentration decreases, to the point of being undetectable when NH4+ supply restricts the rate of photoautotrophic growth. The expression of mtCA can also be induced at supra-atmospheric partial pressure of CO2 by increasing the NH4+ concentration in the growth medium. Conditions that favor mtCA expression usually also stimulate anaplerosis. We therefore propose that the mtCA is involved in supplying HCO3- for anaplerotic assimilation catalyzed by phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase, which provides C skeletons for N assimilation under some circumstances.
1 Research on mechanisms of DIC acquisition by algae in J.A.R.'s laboratory was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (UK). 2 These authors contributed equally to this paper. * Corresponding author; e-mail giordano{at}unian.it; fax 390712204650. Received March 20, 2003; returned for revision April 24, 2003; accepted May 6, 2003. This article has been cited by other articles:
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