Effect of nitrates and sucrose on the induction of nitrate reductase in etiolated seedling leaves from selected barley genotypes in darkness

The parental genotypes, cv. Aramir and R567 line, as well as the selected DH lines C23, C47/1, C41 and C55, growing in darkness differed significantly in the level of NR activity in crude leaf extracts independently of nitrate concentration in the medium. The highest activity of the enzyme was found in the line C23. When plants grew on the medium with 0.5 mM KNO₃, NR activity in that genotype was almost 10-fold higher than in the parents and lines C41, C55 and also 3.5-fold higher than in the line C47/1. An increase of nitrate concentration in the medium to 10 mM caused a significant increase of NR activity in all the genotypes under study. In the line C23 this enzyme activity was only 20% lower than that found previously in the green leaves of that genotype in light. NR from the leaves of C23 and C41 lines was thermally unstable under in vitro conditions. This enzyme in the leaf extracts from the line C23 was characterized by a considerably lower unstability. The lines DH C23 and C41 growing in the dark on the medium with 0.5 mM KNO₃ did not differ in nitrate accumulation in leaves, whereas a larger nitrate content was found in the leaves of the line C41 when it grew on the medium with 10 mM KNO₃. Independently of nitrate concentration in the medium, leaves of the line C23 were found to have a higher sucrose content than those of the line C41. Excised, etiolated leaves of barley treated with 0.5 and 10 mM KNO₃ in dark under conditions favorable to transpiration had a low NR activity. Leaf treatment with a solution containing 10 mM KNO₃ + 0.2 M sucrose caused, on the average, a 13-fold increase of NR activity in comparison to leaves treated only with 10 mM KNO₃ and about a 6-fold increase of this enzyme in comparison to leaves treated with 0.5 mM KNO₃ + 0.2 M sucrose.