DEPENDENCE OF PHOTOSYNTHESIS OF SUNFLOWER AND MAIZE LEAVES ON PHOSPHATE SUPPLY, RIBULOSE-1,5-BISPHOSPHATE CARBOXYLASE OXYGENASE ACTIVITY, AND RIBULOSE-1,5-BISPHOSPHATE POOL SIZE

Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L. cv Asmer) and maize (Zea mays L. cv Eta) plants were grown under controlled environmental conditions with a nutrient solution containing 0, 0.5, or 10 millimolar inorganic phosphate. Phosphate-deficient leaves had lower photosynthetic rates at ambient and saturating CO2 and much smaller carboxylation efficiencies than those of plants grown with ample phosphate. In addition, phosphate-deficient leaves contained smaller quantities of total soluble proteins and ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) per unit area, although the relative proportions of these components remained unchanged. The specific activity of Rubisco (estimated in the crude extracts of leaves) was significantly reduced by phosphate deficiency in sunflower but not in maize. Thus, there was a strong dependence of carboxylation efficiency and CO2-saturated photosynthetic rate on Rubisco activity only in sunflower. Phosphate deficiency decreased the 3-phosphoglycerate and ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate (RuBP) contents of the leaf in both species. The ratio of 3-phosphoglycerate to RuBP decreased in sunflower but increased in maize with phosphate deficiency. The calculated concentrations of RuBP and RuBP-binding sites in the chloroplast stroma decreased markedly with phosphate deficiency. The ratio of the stromal concentration of RuBP to that of RuBP-binding sites decreased in sunflower but was not affected in maize with phosphate deficiency. We suggest that a decrease in this ratio made the RuBP-binding sites more vulnerable to blockage or inactivation by tight-binding metabolites/inhibitors, causing a decrease in the initial specific activity of Rubisco in the crude extract from phosphate-deficient sunflower leaves. However, the decrease in Rubisco specific activity was much less than the decrease in the RuBP content in the leaf and its concentration in the stroma. A large ratio of RuBP to RuBP-binding sites may have maintained the Rubisco-specific activity in phosphate-deficient maize leaves. We conclude that the effect of phosphate deficiency is more on RuBP regeneration than on Rubisco activity in both sunflower and maize.