TRANSPORT AND METABOLISM OF CARBON AND NITROGEN IN LEGUME NODULES

This chapter emphasizes on what may be called the “organization of metabolism.” Legume nodules include two different sets of genes and two different sets of metabolic capabilities. Superimposed on this metabolic complexity is a system of specialized tissues and compartments within cells, and superimposed on most of the system is a very low free oxygen concentration. All this leads to some uncommon biochemistry and to opportunities for regulation of transport and metabolism, which are not found in more typical plant tissues. It is on these unique qualities of nodules that this chapter focuses, in the hope that there are some useful lessons to be learned both by the general plant physiologist and by those struggling to understand the chemical interactions of the plant and bacterium. © 1991 Academic Press Inc.