Abstract
Stable carbon and hydrogen isotope ratios were determined for the saponifiable lipid fraction as well as the cellulose fraction (the latter after nitration to remove exchangeable hydrogens) of several species of red, brown and green algae from three locations. A significant correlation was observed between the hydrogen isotope ratios of cellulose nitrate and saponifiable lipid for red algae, but not for brown or green algae. Carbon-13/carbon-12 ratios for both fractions of red algae were in general lower than those observed for brown and green algae. The results reported here are consistent with the proposals that red algae evolved much earlier than and are metabolically different from the brown and green algae.
Similar content being viewed by others
Abbreviations
- CAM:
-
Crassulacean acid metabolism
- C3 :
-
photosynthetic mode in plants in which CO2 is fixed into a three-carbon compound
- C4 :
-
photosynthetic mode in plants in which CO2 is fixed into a four-carbon compound
- δ:
-
unit used to express isotope ratios
References
Bender, M.M. (1971) Variation in 13C/12C ratios of plants in relation to the pathway of photosynthetic carbon dioxide fixation. Phytochemistry 10, 1239–1244
Bender, M.M., Rouhani, I., Vines, H.M., Black, Jr., C.C. (1973) 13C/12C ratio changes in Crassulacean acid metabolism plants. Plant Physiol. 52, 427–430
DeNiro, M.J., Epstein, S. (1981) Isotopic composition of cellulose from aquatic organisms. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 45, 1885–1894
Epstein, S, Yapp, C.J., Hall, H. (1976) The determination of the D/H ratio of nonexchangeable hydrogen in cellulose extracted from aquatic and land plants. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 30, 241–251
Estep, M.F., Hoering, T.C. (1981) Stable hydrogen isotope fractionations during autotrophic and mixotrophic growth of microalgae. Plant Physiol. 67, 474–477
Hayes, J.M. (1982) Fractionation, et al.: An introduction to isotopic measurements and terminology. Spectra 8, 3–8
Jacobi, G. (1957) Vergleichend-enzymatische Untersuchungen an marinen Grün- und Rotalgen. Kiel. Meeresforsch. 13, 212–219
Larkum, A.W.D., Barrett, J. (1983) Light harvesting processes in algae. Adv. Bot. Res. 10, 2–85
Leaney, F.W., Osmond, C.B., Allison, G.B., Ziegler, H. (1985) Hydrogen-isotope composition of leaf water in C3 and C4 plants: Its relationship to the hydrogen-isotope composition of dry matter. Planta 164, 215–220
Lim, B.L., Hori, H., Osawa, S. (1983) the nucleotide sequences of 5S RNAs from two red algae, Gracilaria compressa and Porphyra tenera. Nucl. Acid Res. 11, 5185–5188
Northfelt, D., DeNiro, M.J., Epstein, S. (1981) Hydrogen and carbon isotopic ratios of cellulose nitrate and saponifiable lipid fractions prepared from annual growth rings of California redwood. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 45, 1895–1898
O'Leary, M.H. (1981) Carbon isotope fractionation in plants. Phytochemistry 20, 553–567
Prescott, G.W. (1968) The algae: A review. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston
Sharkey, T.D., Berry, J.A. (1985) Carbon isotope fractionation of algae as influenced by an inducible CO2 concentrating mechanism. In: Inorganic carbon uptake by aquatic photosynthetic organisms, pp. 389–401, Lucas, W.J., Berry, J.A., eds. American Society of Plant Physiologists, Rockville, Md., USA
Smith, B.N., Epstein, S. (1970) Biogeochemistry of the stable isotopes of hydrogen and carbon in salt marsh biota. Plant Physiol. 46, 738–742
Smith, B.N., Epstein, S. (1971) Two categories of 13C/12C ratios for higher plants. Plant Physiol. 47, 380–384
Smith, F.A., Walker, N.A. (1980) Photosynthesis by aquatic plants: Effects of unstirred layers in relation to assimilation of CO2 and HCO3 and to carbon isotopic discrimination. New Phytol. 86, 245–259
Sternberg, L., DeNiro, M.J. (1983) Isotopic composition of cellulose from C3, C4 and CAM plants growing in the vicinity of one another. Science 220, 947–948
Sternberg, L., DeNiro, M.J., Ajie, H. (1984) Stable hydrogen isotope ratios of saponifiable lipids and cellulose nitrate from CAM, C3 and C4 plants. Phytochemistry 23, 2475–2477
Takaiwa, F., Kusuda, M., Saga, N., Siguira, M. (1982) The nucleotide sequence of 5S RNA from a red algae, Porphyra yezoensis. Nucl. Acid Res. 10, 6037–6040
Wershaw, R.L., Friedman, I., Heller, S.J. (1966) Hydrogen isotopic fractionation of water passing through trees. In: Advances in organic geochemistry, pp. 55–67, Hobson, G.D., Spear, G.C., eds. Pergamon Press, New York
Ziegler, H., Osmond, C.B., Stickler, W., Trimborn, P. (1976) Hydrogen isotope discrimination in higher plants: Correlation with photosynthetic pathway and environment. Planta 128, 82–92
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Also Archaeology Program, UCLA
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
da S.L. Sternberg, L., De Niro, M.J. & Ajie, H.O. Isotopic relationships between saponifiable lipids and cellulose nitrate prepared from red, brown and green algae. Planta 169, 320–324 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00392126
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00392126