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Journal of Experimental Botany, Vol. 54, No. 389, ã Society for Experimental Biology 2003; all rights reserved
1970 Cousins et al.
ambient levels of atmospheric [CO2] (Maroco et al., 1999). increase the sensitivity of C4 crops to elevated atmospheric
In another growth chamber experiment, the total amount of [CO2].
PEPC, but not Rubisco, was reduced in the mature leaves The goals of this research are (1) to characterize the
of sorghum plants grown under double atmospheric [CO2] development of the C4 pathway in sorghum leaves; (2) to
(Watling et al., 2000). Although the developmental pattern assess whether or not growth under elevated atmospheric
of C4 expression has been well characterized in maize and CO2 concentrations would alter the development and cell
other C4 leaves, the possibility that the development of the speci®c expression of key C3 and C4 enzymes; and (3) to
C4 pathway may be sensitive to changes in growth determine if the photosynthetic enzyme activity is affected
atmospheric [CO2] has not been addressed. by growth under elevated atmospheric [CO2]. To test these
In graminaceous plants, leaf cells divide from a basal questions, a Sorghum bicolor crop was grown in the ®eld
meristem, which causes older cells to be displaced by under a free-air CO2 enrichment (FACE) experiment at
younger cells below them (Nelson and Langdale, 1989). control (370 ppm) and FACE (570 ppm) atmospheric
Results
Leaf growth
There was no difference in the length of the ®fth or sixth
Fig. 1. Leaf sectioning and harvesting. The coleoptile and all prior
leaves due to growth under elevated atmospheric [CO2]
Discussion
In order to determine the effect of elevated atmospheric
Fig. 3. Protein and chlorophyll development. The total soluble protein
[CO2] on the growth and development of the C4 pathway, (g protein m±2) and total chlorophyll (mmol Chl m±2) determined on a
both the structural and biochemical development of leaf leaf area basis for each of the ®ve leaf sections on the ®fth leaf.
tissue in the ®fth leaf of Sorghum bicolor have been
characterized. the appearance, accumulation and cell 5). Similar to what would be expected for a C3 plant,
speci®c expression of key C4 pathway enzymes during Rubisco was located in both the mesophyll and BSC
the development of this particular leaf were measured chloroplast in the youngest leaf tissue (Fig. 5a). By
directly. Extremely large changes in leaf tissue anatomy contrast with mature C4 leaf tissue, PEPC immunolocal-
and biochemistry occurred in a very short period of ization was undetectable in these same young leaf tissues
development. In the youngest leaf tissue the chloroplasts (Fig. 5f). These observations are consistent with previous
were small and randomly arranged against the cell wall. work on developing maize leaves where Rubisco appears
The total enzyme activities of Rubisco and PEPC were low signi®cantly before PEPC accumulates (Nelson et al.,
and virtually undetectable by immunolocalization (Figs 4, 1984). The BSC chloroplasts in the second leaf section
Development of C4 photosynthesis under elevated CO2 1973
were not enlarged nor centrifugally arranged, as typically By contrast to C3 plants, elevated CO2-induced photo-
seen in mature leaf tissue. However, Rubisco immuno- synthetic acclimation is not commonly observed in C4
localized exclusively to the BSC chloroplast (Fig. 5b). plants. In C3 plants acclimation to long-term exposure to
These observations are again consistent with earlier work elevated CO2 usually causes a decrease in the photosyn-
in developing maize leaves, which showed that mRNA for thetic capacity associated with reduced levels of Rubisco
the large and small subunits of Rubisco accumulate and other C3 cycle enzymes (Stitt, 1991; Sage, 1994;
exclusively in the BSC chloroplast before the cells are Webber et al., 1994; Nie et al., 1995; Ghannoum et al.,
fully differentiated (Martineau and Taylor, 1985). PEPC 2000). In C4 plants elevated CO2 may allow alterations in
expression was still undetectable in the second leaf section the content or activity of some C3 and C4 cycle enzymes
(Fig. 5g). By the third leaf section the BSC chloroplasts without losses in the rates of CO2 assimilation (Maroco
were enlarged, centrifugally arranged and contained large et al., 1999). In this experiment the relative ratios of
amounts of Rubisco (Fig. 5c), and PEPC occurred only in Rubisco to PEPC remained constant during leaf develop-
the cytosol of the mesophyll cells (Fig. 5h). Both Rubisco ment. However, the total activities of Rubisco and PEPC
and PEPC activity accumulated very rapidly as the leaf decreased under elevated CO2 implying that young C4
tissue differentiated further and emerged from the sur- photosynthetic plant tissue may acclimate to growth under
rounding whorl (Fig. 4). The total amount of leaf protein elevated CO2. These data are consistent with the results of
per unit area remained relatively constant after the ®rst leaf previously published work, which showed that photosyn-
section. However, total chloroplast and total enzyme thesis in the upper most fully expanded ®fth leaf was
activities of Rubisco and PEPC continued to increase as consistently lower in response to changes in intercellular
the leaf developed and emerged from the whorl. CO2 in FACE-grown plants as compared to control plants
From these observations it appears that Rubisco is not (Cousins et al., 2001; see Fig. 2e, f). Although these gas
expressed in a cell-speci®c manner in very young leaf exchange data were collected during the second year of the
tissue. In addition, Rubisco accumulates before signi®cant FACE sorghum experiment, it further substantiates enzym-
amounts of PEPC are detectable. Thus, the cells at very atic data indicating that C4 photosynthesis may acclimate
early stages of leaf development must utilize a C3-like to growth under elevated CO2.
pathway for carbon ®xation. Although this young leaf
tissue may in fact have C3-like characteristics, the cells are
Conclusions
under very low light conditions inside the whorls and
signi®cant rates of photosynthesis are unlikely. By the time Although young sorghum leaf tissues express C3-like
the leaf tissue emerges from the surrounding whorl and photosynthetic characteristics, it seems unlikely that rates
into full sunlight, the C4 apparatus appears to be fully of photosynthesis are signi®cant in these cells. By the time
expressed. cells emerge from the surrounding whorl and into full
1974 Cousins et al.
ef®ciency with which the C4-pump is able to concentrate
CO2 within the BSC under CO2 enrichment
Acknowledgements
Asaph Cousins acknowledges support from a NSF Graduate
Research Training Grant (DGE-9553456). The research was
supported by Interagency Agreement No DE-AI03-97ER62461
between the Department of Energy, Of®ce of Biological and
Environmental Research, Environmental Sciences Division and the
USDA, Agricultural Research Service BAK); by Grant No. 97-
35109-5065 from the USDA, Competitive Grants Program to the
University of Arizona (SWL); and by the USDA, Agricultural
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