Rapid Inhibitor-Induced Changes in the C¹⁴-Labeled Compounds Formed by the Photosynthetic Carbon Reduction Cycle

Abstract

The rapid sampling of a biological system exposed to labeled substrate is often an essential feature of a study of the kinetics of metabolic reactions. If the metabolic system under consideration is as complicated as whole cells, it is composed of a large number of individual reactions comprising one or more networks. The problem of focusing upon the reaction or the portion of a network of immediate interest is one of selecting conditions which will permit observation against a background of general metabolic activity. Often it is desirable to maintain a steady state of metabolism upon which one may be able to impose a specific transient change by means of a suitable perturbation in the controlled environmental conditions. At the same time, if more than one pool of individual metabolites is present, it may be necessary to devise a means of isolating those pools of intermediates which lie along the pathway under study.