Abstract
Using the ammonium analogue 14CH3NH +3 , ammonium transport was studied in the cyanobiont cells freshly isolated from the root nodules of Cycas revoluta. An L-methionine-dl-sulphoximine (MSX)-insensitive ammonium-transport system, which was dependent on membrane potential (ΔΨ), was found in the cyanobiont. However, the cyanobiont was incapable of metabolizing exogenous 14CH3NH +3 or NH +4 because of the absence of another ammonium-transport system responsible for the uptake of ammonium for assimilation via glutamine synthetase (EC 6.3.1.2). Such a modification seems to be the result of symbiosis because the free-living cultured isolate, Anabaena cycadeae, has been shown to possess both the ammonium-transport systems.
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Abbreviations
- ATS/ATSs:
-
ammonium transport system/systems
- Chl:
-
chlorophyll
- GS:
-
glutamine synthetase
- MSX:
-
L-methionine-dl-sulphoximine
- ΔΨ:
-
membrane potential
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Rai, A.N., Lindblad, P. & Bergman, B. Absence of the glutamine-synthetase-linked methylammonium (ammonium)-transport system in the cyanobiont of Cycas-cyanobacterial symbiosis. Planta 169, 379–381 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00392134
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00392134