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JXB Advance Access published online on July 23, 2007
Journal of Experimental Botany, doi:10.1093/jxb/erm115
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© 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

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


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