Effect of Nitrogen Nutrition on Remobilization of Protein Sulfur in the Leaves of Vegetative Soybean and Associated Changes in Soluble Sulfur Metabolites.
The hypothesis that protein S is remobilized from mature leaves in response to N stress but not S stress was examined by transferring vegetative soybean (Glycine max L. Merr) plants grown with adequate sulfate and nitrate to nutrient medium with low sulfate (5 [mu]M) and nitrate at either 15, 7.5, 2, or 0.25 mM. Soluble S decreased to very low levels in mature and maturing leaves, especially in low-N plants. At high [N], insoluble S (protein) in mature leaves remained constant, but at low [N], after the soluble S declined, up to 40% of the insoluble S was exported. The losses were complemented by gains, initially in soluble S, but subsequently in insoluble S, in the expanding leaves and the root. In low-N plants, but not in high-N plants, the decrease in insoluble S in mature leaves was complemented by increases in homoglutathione (hGSH), Cys, and Met. At low [N], but not at high [N], the developing leaf, leaf 5, contained high amounts of soluble S, mostly hGSH. The results suggest that, at low [N], protein S is metabolized to hGSH, which serves as the principal transport compound for the export of organic S.
Sunarpi
School of Botany, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria 3083, Australia.
Anderson
J. W.
JW