Dark/Light Modulation of Ribulose Bisphosphate Carboxylase Activity in Plants from Different Photosynthetic Categories

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Abstract
Ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RuBPCase) from several plants had substantially greater activity in extracts from lightexposed leaves than dark leaves, even when the extracts were incubated in vitro with saturating HCO3− and Mg2+ concentrations. This occurred in Glycine max, Lycopersicon esculentum, Nicotiana tabacum, Panicum bisulcatum, and P. hylaeicum (C3); P. maximum (C4 phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase); P. milioides (C3/C4); and Bromelia pinguin and Ananas comosus (Crassulacean acid metabolism). Little or no difference between light and dark leaf extracts of RuBPCase was observed in Triticum aestivum (C3); P. miliaceum (C4 NAD malic enzyme); Zea mays and Sorghum bicolor (C4 NADP malic enzyme); Moricandia arvensis (C3/C4); and Hydrilla verticillata (submersed aquatic macrophyte). It is concluded that, in many plants, especially Crassulacean acid metabolism and C3 species, a large fraction of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase in the dark is in an inactivatable state that cannot respond to CO2 and Mg2+ activation, but which can be converted to an activatable state upon exposure of the leaf to light.