Influence of long photoperiods on plant development and expression of Crassulacean acid metabolism in Mesembryanthemum crystallinum

Abstract. In the natural habitat plants of Mesembryanthemum crystallinum are induced to perform Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) after 3 months, and reproductive growth begins after 5 months (Winter, Liittge & Winter, 1978, Oecologia (Berlin), 34, 225-237). The life cycle of M. crystallinum and the extent of growth required prior to induction of enzymes of Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) are dramatically shortened by growing seedlings with a long photoperiod (3=16h/8h light/dark). Reproductive growth begins as soon as five weeks after germination when plants are grown in continuous light (under 600μmol quanta m⁻² s⁻¹, 30°C). In plants grown under well-watered conditions, the activities of PEP carboxylase and NADP-malic enzyme begin increasing markedly 2 weeks after germination, with plants grown under longer photoperiods having higher enzyme activities. After 3 weeks of growth, leaves accumulated a large amount of malate, but the microequivalents of malate present were up to nine times greater than the total titratable acidities. Interestingly, plants from a 24h/0h or a 20h/4h photo-period showed no diurnal fluctuation of malate, but did produce malate in the light as a major photosynthetic end product. That is, under these environmental conditions, principal enzymes of CAM can be induced without the plants performing CAM. However, plants grown in a 16h/8h photoperiod did exhibit nocturnal accumulation of malate after 3 weeks of growth. In plants of all three growth conditions, the activities of NADP-malic enzyme and PEP carboxylase were further increased two- to live-fold by irrigating 3-week-old-plants with 350mol m⁻³ NaCl. Such early enhancement of these enzymes by salt and the shortened life cycle may be due to an accelerated development under the long photoperiods.     

Water relations of individual leaf cells ofMesembryanthemum crystallinum plants grown at low and high salinity

Summary The effects of saline conditions on the water relations of cells in intact leaf tissue of the facultative CAM plantMesembryanthemum crystallinum were studied using the pressure probe technique. During a 12-hr light/dark regime a maximum in turgor pressure was recorded for the mesophyll cells of salttreated (CAM) plants at the beginning of the light period followed 6 hr later by a pressure maximum in the bladder cells of the upper epidermis. In contrast, the turgor pressure in the bladder cells of the lower epidermis remained constant during light/dark regime. Turgor pressure maxima were not observed in untreated (C₃) plants.This finding strongly supports the assumption that water movement during malate accumulation and degradation in salttreated plants occurs predominantly between the mesophyll cells and the bladder cells of the upper epidermis. The necessary calculations take differences in the compartment volumes and in the elastic moduli of the cell walls () of the bladder cells of the lower and upper epidermis into account.Measurements of the kinetics of water transport showed that the half-time of water exchange for the two sorts of bladder cells were nearly identical in CAM plants and in C₃ plants. The absolute values of the half-times increased by about 45% in salttreated plants (about 113 sec) compared to the control plants (78 sec). Simultaneously, the half-time of water exchange of the mesophyll cells increased by about 60% from 14 sec (untreated plants) to 22 sec (salt-exposed plants). The leaves of this plant are apparently able to closely maintain the time of propagation of short-term osmotic pressure changes over a large salinity range.A cumulative plot of the data measured on both C₃ and CAM plants showed that the differences between the values of the elastic moduli of bladder cells from the lower and from the upper epidermis are due to differences in volume and suggested that the intrinsic elastic properties of the differently located bladder cells of C₃ and CAM plants were identical.A cumulative plot of the hydraulic conductivity of the membrane obtained both on mesophyll and on bladder cells of salttreated and of untreated plantsvs. the individual turgor pressure yielded a relationship well-known from giant algal cells and some higher plant cells: The hydraulic conductivity increased at very low pressure, indicating that the water permeability properties of the membrane of the various cell types of C₃ and CAM plants are pressure dependent, but otherwise identical.The results suggest that a few fundamental physical relationships control the adaptation of the tissue cells to salinity.     

Cadmium effects on growth and mineral nutrition of two halophytes: Sesuvium portulacastrum and Mesembryanthemum crystallinum

Growth, cadmium accumulation and potassium and calcium status were studied in two halophytes from Aizoaceae family: Sesuvium portulacastrum and Mesembryanthemum crystallinum. After multiplication, the seedlings were cultivated on nutrient solution supplemented with NaCl (100mM) and CdCl2 (0, 50, 100, 200 and 300 microM). After 1 month of treatment, plants were harvested and the dry weight, as well as the Cd, K and Ca concentrations in tissues were determined. Results showed that S. portulacastrum, a perennial halophyte with slow growth, is significantly more tolerant to Cd than M. crystallinum, an annual plant. Cd severely inhibited Mesembryanthemum growth even at the lowest Cd concentration in culture medium (50 microM), and did not modify significantly that of Sesuvium. For both halophytes, Cd accumulation was significantly higher in the roots than in the shoots. However, Cd concentration reached 350-700 microg g(-1) DM in the shoots, values characteristic of Cd hyperaccumulator plants. The addition of Cd in the culture medium led to a disturbance of Ca and especially K nutrition, suggesting the possibility to improve plant growth and Cd phytoextraction of both halophytes by increasing nutrient availability in the culture medium.     

水分胁迫对露花叶片中PEP羧化酶活性及其调节特性的影响

水分胁迫期间露花叶片中PEP羧化酶的活力随胁迫时间的延长明显增加,复水后PEPC同工酶的活力下降。从露花叶片中分离到3个具有不同动力学和物理学特性的PEPC同工酶(PCⅠ,PCⅡ,PCⅢ),其中同工酶PCⅠ只存在于水分胁迫下露花叶片中,复水后消失。 这3个同工酶的K_m(PEP)值不相同;PCⅠ的K_m(PEP)值介于PCⅡ与PCⅢ之间,它在PAGE上的相对迁移率(Rm)比PCⅡ和PCⅢ大,对效应剂G—6—P及Mal的反应不敏感,分子量为PCⅡ之半;PCⅡ被G—6—P激活和被Mal抑制的程度介于PCⅠ与PCⅢ之间,它在PAGE上的相对迁移率和分子量与PCⅢ极相近。     

Quantification of Visible Structural Changes of the V0V1-ATPase in the Leaf-tonoplast of Mesembryanthemum crystallinum by Freeze-fracture Replicas Prepared During the C3-Photosynthesis to CAM Transition*

Plants of the annual facultative halophyte and facultative CAM-plant, Mesembryanthemum crystallinum L., were irrigated with a solution containing NaCl when they had developed 3 leaf pairs. This treatment induced CAM and the plants were then watered with 400 mM NaCl until the end of the experiment of 37 days. A separate set of plants was simultaneously maintained as non-salt treated controls. Tonoplast vesicles were prepared from the leaves at regular intervals during the time-course of the experiment. Three samples of each preparation were freezed fractured, and carbon/platinum-replicas taken. On a total of 1400 fracture faces the diameters and densities per unit area of intramembraneous particles were measured. The results show an increase in the average diameter of particles from 6.5 nm to 8.5 nm and an increase of the relative amount of fracture faces with high particle densities related to the total of fracture faces obtained; both of which kinetically correlated to CAM induction. This increase in size and density of particles, which are known to belong to the H⁺-transporting ATPase of the tonoplast. shows independently of and in addition to protein analyses, that an increased amount of ATPase-protein is incorporated into the membrane during CAM induction. Some possible explanations for the increase in ATPase particle size are discussed.     

干旱影响露花叶片PEP羧化酶蛋白合成的同位素证据

After drought treatment, marked increase in quantity of PEPcarboxylase protein in the leaves of M. cordifolium, an inducible CAM plant, was shown by SDS-PAGE and western immunoblot (Fig. 1). Further investigation with incorporation of L-[~(35)S] methionine into leaf discs and immunoprecipitation revealed that de novo synthesis of PEP-carboxylase protein was responsible for this increase (Fig. 2).