Phytochrome-dependent Reduction of Nicotinamide Nucleotides in the Mitochondrial Fraction Isolated from Etiolated Pea Epicotyls

When mitochondria isolated from etiolated pea (Pisum sativum cv. Alaska) epicotyls were exposed briefly to red light, their ability to reduce exogenous NADP was enhanced. The red light effect was reversed by far red light. Photoreversible absorbance changes between 730 nm and 800 nm were spectrophotometrically detected in the purified mitochondria and its membrane fraction. The dehydrogenase activity in the mitochondria was heat-labile and was dependent on the presence of magnesium ion and appropriate substrates such as glucose 6-phosphate, isocitrate, pyruvate, 6-phosphogluconate, and succinate. The photoreversible effect was seen only for a few minutes after the irradiation, and was cancelled by hypotonic treatment or addition of Triton X-100. A similar but lesser effect was observed in the pea microsome fraction, whereas no photoreversible response was seen with a supernatant fraction resulting from centrifugation at 10⁵g for 30 minutes.