Ammonia Fixation via Glutamine Synthetase and Glutamate Synthase in the CAM Plant Cissus quadrangularis L.

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Abstract
Succulent stems of Cissus quadrangularis L. (Vitaceae) contain glutamine synthetase, glutamate synthase, and glutamate dehydrogenase. The CO2 and water gas exchanges of detached internodes were typical for Crassulacean acid metabolism plants. During three physiological phases, e.g. in the dark, in the early illumination period after stomata closure, and during the late light phase with the stomata wide open, 15NH4Cl was injected into the central pitch of stem sections. The kinetics of 15N labeling in glutamate and glutamine suggested that glutamine synthetase was involved in the initial ammonia fixation. In the presence of methionine sulfoximine, an inhibitor of glutamine synthetase, the incorporation of 15N derived from 15NH4Cl was almost completely inhibited. Injections of amino-15N glutamine demonstrated a potential for 15N transfer from the amido group of glutamine into glutamate which was suppressed by the glutamate synthase inhibitor, azaserine. The evidence indicates that glutamine synthetase and glutamate synthetase could assimilate ammonia and cycle nitrogen during all phases of Crassulacean acid metabolism.