Skip Navigation


JXB Advance Access originally published online on July 23, 2007
Journal of Experimental Botany 2008 59(7):1685-1693; doi:10.1093/jxb/erm115
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
59/7/1685    most recent
erm115v1
Right arrow E-letters: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when E-letters are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Tcherkez, G.
Right arrow Articles by Hodges, M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Tcherkez, G.
Right arrow Articles by Hodges, M.
Agricola
Right arrow Articles by Tcherkez, G.
Right arrow Articles by Hodges, M.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author [2007]. Published by Oxford University Press [on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology]. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

SPECIAL ISSUE OPINION PAPER

How stable isotopes may help to elucidate primary nitrogen metabolism and its interaction with (photo)respiration in C3 leaves

Guillaume Tcherkez1,2,* and Michael Hodges3

1Plateforme Métabolisme-Métabolome, IFR 87, Bât. 630, Université Paris Sud-XI, F-91405 Orsay cedex, France
2Laboratoire d’écophysiologie végétale, CNRS UMR 8079, Bât. 362, Université Paris Sud-XI, F-91405 Orsay cedex, France
3Institut de Biotechnologie des Plantes, CNRS UMR 8618, Bât. 630, Université Paris Sud-XI, F-91405 Orsay cedex, France

* To whom correspondence should be addressed at Laboratoire d’écophysiologie végétale, CNRS UMR 8079, Bât. 362, Université Paris Sud-XI, 91405 Orsay cedex, France. E-mail: guillaume.tcherkez{at}u-psud.fr

Intense efforts are currently devoted to elucidate the metabolic networks of plants, in which nitrogen assimilation is of particular importance because it is strongly related to plant growth. In addition, at the leaf level, primary nitrogen metabolism interacts with photosynthesis, day respiration, and photorespiration, simply because nitrogen assimilation needs energy, reductant, and carbon skeletons which are provided by these processes. While some recent studies have focused on metabolomics and genomics of plant leaves, the actual metabolic fluxes associated with nitrogen metabolism operating in leaves are not very well known. In the present paper, it is emphasized that 12C/13C and 14N/15N stable isotopes have proved to be useful tools to investigate such metabolic fluxes and isotopic data are reviewed in the light of some recent advances in this area. Although the potential of stable isotopes remains high, it is somewhat limited by our knowledge of some isotope effects associated with enzymatic reactions. Therefore, this paper should be viewed as a call for more fundamental studies on isotope effects by plant enzymes.

Key words: Day respiration, fractionation, 2-oxoglutarate, photorespiration, stable isotopes, transamination

Received 7 February 2007; Revised 6 April 2007 Accepted 27 April 2007


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.