Photosynthetic 14CO2 Fixation Products and Activities of Enzymes Related to Photosynthesis in Bermudagrass and Other Plants

After a 5-second exposure of illuminated bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon L. var. ;Coastal') leaves to (14)CO(2), 84% of the incorporated (14)C was recovered as aspartate and malate. After transfer from (14)CO(2)-air to (12)CO(2)-air under continuous illumination, total radioactivity decreased in aspartate, increased in 3-phosphoglyceric acid and alanine, and remained relatively constant in malate. Carbon atom 1 of alanine was labeled predominantly, which was interpreted to indicate that alanine was derived from 3-phosphoglyceric acid. The activity of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase, alkaline pyrophosphatase, adenylate kinase, pyruvate-phosphate dikinase, and malic enzyme in bermudagrass leaf extracts was distinctly higher than those in fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.), a reductive pentose phosphate cycle plant. Assays of malic enzyme activity indicated that the decarboxylation of malate was favored. Both malic enzyme and NADP(+)-specific malic dehydrogenase activity were low in bermudagrass compared to sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.). The activities of NAD(+)-specific malic dehydrogenase and acidic pyrophosphatase in leaf extracts were similar among the plant species examined, irrespective of the predominant cycle of photosynthesis. Ribulose-1, 5-diphosphate carboxylase in C(4)-dicarboxylic acid cycle plant leaf extracts was about 60%, on a chlorophyll basis, of that in reductive pentose phosphate cycle plants.We conclude from the enzyme and (14)C-labeling studies that bermudagrass contains the C(4)-dicarboxylic acid cycle and that pyruvate-phosphate dikinase does not exist exclusively in C(4)-dicarboxylic acid cycle plants, and we propose that in C(4)-dicarboxylic acid cycle plants the transfer of carbon from a dicarboxylic acid to 3-phosphoglyceric acid involves a decarboxylation reaction and then a refixation of carbon dioxide by ribulose-1, 5-diphosphate carboxylase.