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Metabolism and Enzymology

Transient Responses of Nitrogenase to Acetylene and Oxygen in Actinorhizal Nodules and Cultured Frankia¹

Harvard University, Harvard Forest, Petersham, Massachusetts 01366

Nitrogenase activity in root nodules of four species of actinorhizal plants showed varying declines in response to exposure to acetylene (10% v/v). Gymnostoma papuanum (S. Moore) L. Johnson. and Casuarina equisetifolia L. nodules showed a small decline (5-15%) with little or no recovery over 15 minutes. Myrica gale L. nodules showed a sharp decline followed by a rapid return to peak activity. Alnus incana ssp. rugosa (Du Roi) Clausen. nodules usually showed varying degrees of decline followed by a slower return to peak or near-peak activity. We call these effects acetylene-induced transients. Rapid increases in oxygen tension also caused dramatic transient decreases in nitrogenase activity in all species. The magnitude of the transient decrease was related to the size of the O₂ partial pressure (pO₂) rise, to the proximity of the starting and ending oxygen tensions to the pO₂ optimum, and to the time for which the plant was exposed to the lower pO₂. Oxygen-induced transients, induced both by step jumps in pO₂ and by O₂ pulses, were also observed in cultures of Frankia. The effects seen in nodules are purely a response by the bacterium and not a nodule effect per se. Oxygen-induced nitrogenase transients in actinorhizal nodules from the plant genera tested here do not appear to be a result of changes in nodule diffusion resistance.

³ Permanent address: School of Natural Science, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA 01002.

¹ Supported by Maria Moors Foundation for Botanical Research of Harvard University, by a research grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DE-FGO2-84-ER-13198), and by research funds from the A. W. Mellon Foundation of New York.

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