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Photorespiration and nitrate assimilation: a major intersection between plant carbon and nitrogen

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Abstract

C3 carbon fixation has a bad reputation, primarily because it is associated with photorespiration, a biochemical pathway thought to waste a substantial amount of the carbohydrate produced in a plant. This review presents evidence collected over nearly a century that (1) Rubisco when associated with Mn2+ generates additional reductant during photorespiration, (2) this reductant participates in the assimilation of nitrate into protein, and (3) this nitrate assimilation facilitates the use of a nitrogen source that other organisms tend to avoid. This phenomenon explains the continued dominance of C3 plants during the past 23 million years of low CO2 atmospheres as well as the decline in plant protein concentrations as atmospheric CO2 rises.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded in part by NSF IOS-13-58675. We thank J. Clark Lagarias and George H. Lorimer for their insights about redox reactions and the reviewers for their suggestions.

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The author has no conflicts of interest with regards to this research.

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    Arnold J. Bloom

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Bloom, A.J. Photorespiration and nitrate assimilation: a major intersection between plant carbon and nitrogen. Photosynth Res 123, 117–128 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-014-0056-y

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