Photosynthetic Carbon Fixation Characteristics of Fruiting Structures of Brassica campestris L.

Activities of key enzymes of the Calvin cycle and C(4) metabolism, rates of CO(2) fixation, and the initial products of photosynthetic (14)CO(2) fixation were determined in the podwall, seed coat (fruiting structures), and the subtending leaf (leaf below a receme) of Brassica campestris L. cv ;Toria.' Compared to activities of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase and other Calvin cycle enzymes, e.g. NADP-glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate-dehydrogenase and ribulose-5-phosphate kinase, the activities of phosphoenol pyruvate carboxylase and other enzymes of C(4) metabolism, viz. NADP-malate dehydrogenase, NADP-malic enzyme, glutamate pyruvate transaminase, and glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase, were generally much higher in seed than in podwall and leaf. Podwall and leaf were comparable to each other. Pulse-chase experiments showed that in seed the major product of (14)CO(2) assimilation was malate (in short time), whereas in podwall and leaf, the label initially appeared in 3-PGA. With time, the label moved to sucrose. In contrast to legumes, Brassica pods were able to fix net CO(2) during light. However, respiratory losses were very high during the dark period.