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Photosynthesis, Growth, and the Role of Chloride ^1,2

^a Department of Soils and Plant Nutrition, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720

Previous studies with isolated chloroplasts have indicated that Cl^– is an essential cofactor for photosynthesis. Considerable support for the postulated Cl^– requirement in photosynthesis came from the observation that Cl^– is essential for growth. Data are presented which show that a 60% reduction in growth which occurred in Cl^– -deficient sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) was not due to an effect of Cl^– on the rate of photosynthesis in vivo (net CO₂ uptake per unit area of attached leaves). The principal effect of Cl^– deficiency was to lower cell multiplication rates in leaves, thus slowing down their growth and ultimately decreasing their area. The absence of an effect of Cl^– on photosynthesis in vivo was unlikely to have been due to Cl^– retention by the chloroplasts because their Cl^– concentration (measured after nonaqueous isolation) decreased progressively with decrease in leaf Cl^–.

An effect of Cl^– with isolated chloroplasts in vitro, however, was confirmed. Addition of Cl^– to the reaction medium after washing chloroplasts in EDTA increased the rate of ferricyanide photoreduction 10-fold. This effect of Cl^– did not appear to be related to the Cl^– concentration of the chloroplasts since chloroplast Cl^– was not decreased further by washing in EDTA. It is concluded that Cl^– has not yet unequivocally been shown to be an essential cofactor for photosynthesis and that the response to Cl^–in vitro probably does not have a physiological basis.

² A brief presentation of this work was made at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Plant Physiologists at New Orleans, La., June 3, 1976 (Plant Physiol. 57: S-95).

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