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. 1989 Jul;90(3):1129–1133. doi: 10.1104/pp.90.3.1129

Tissue and Cellular Distribution of Glutamine Synthetase in Roots of Pea (Pisum sativum) Seedlings 1

Louis-P Vézina 1, Jean R Langlois 1
PMCID: PMC1061854  PMID: 16666862

Abstract

The effect of nitrate application on glutamine synthetase activity in roots of pea (Pisum sativum L.) seedlings (2 weeks old) was studied. Separation of organelles from root fragments by sucrose density-gradient centrifugation revealed that both nitrite reductase and glutamine synthetase activities increased in root plastids as a response to nitrate application and that no such response was induced by ammonium application. Glutamine synthetase activity was also found to increase in plastids with distance from apex in nitrate-treated plants, the highest specific activity being located in the fourth 1-centimeter segment. Separation by SDS-PAGE and characterization by Western blotting showed that cytosolic glutamine synthetase contains one subunit polypeptide (28 kilodaltons) and that plastid glutamine synthetase contains both the 38-kilodalton subunit and a heavier subunit. When nitrate was present in the nutrient solution, the heavier subunit increased in abundance in protein fractions obtained from purified root plastids.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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