Glucose metabolism in detached leaves of tomato plants grown with ammonium and nitrate as nitrogen sources

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Abstract
The metabolism of exogenous glucose-14C in the light and the dark was studied in the detached leaves of tomato plants grown with ammonium nitrogen and nitrate nitrogen. In the light, 14CO2, release and incorporation of glucose into insoluble materials were hardly affected at all by the nitrogen sources. Among the soluble labelled amino acids, serine had the greatest amount of label in the ammonium-plants while aspartate had the greatest amount in the nitrate-plants. This aspartate was synthesized from C3-compounds by carboxylation. During dark-light transition, the change in the composition of soluble amino acids was more rapid in the ammonium-plants than in the nitrate-plants. In the dark, 14CO2-release, which was ten times as much as in the light, was larger in the ammonium-plants than in the nitrate-plants; but the synthesis of high molecular compounds from glucose in the ammonium-plants was about half that in the nitrate-plants. So, it is considered that respiration operates sufficiently in the ammonium-plants. The effects of DCMU and a 100% O2 atmosphere on glucose metabolism in both groups of plants were studied and the respiration of leaves in the light was discussed.