to be reached on the pathway of ammonia assimilation. Thus, 15N-feeding experiments with both root (17, 27) and shoot (8) tissues, and studies using 13N (13,22) in which glutamine was initially more highly labeled than glutamate, have been interpreted as being consistent with ammonia assimilation via the GS/glutamate synthase route. Similarly, experiments in which glutamate was initially more highly labeled than glutamine (6, 8) have been interpreted as being at least qualitatively consistent with assimilation via GDH. Such conclusions are, however, speculative in the absence of information on the number and relative sizes of the glutamate and glutamine pools in the tissues concerned.The purpose of these studies was to obtain kinetic labehling data from experiments in which Hordeum seedlings, growing under steady state conditions, were fed '5N-labeled ammonia or nitrate.Attempts were then made to apply a quantitative analysis to the 15N incorporation patterns in ammonia-fed barley roots.
MATERIALS AND METHODSNumerous studies have demonstrated that both roots and leaves of higher plants possess the enzymic potential for the assimilation of ammonia either via the direct reductive amination of 2-oxoglutarate, catalyzed by GDH2 or via the combined action of GS and glutamate synthase (23). The now widely held belief that the GS/ glutamate synthase pathway is solely responsible for ammonia assimilation in these tissues (15) Growth of Plants. The growth system used was a 'continuous flow' water culture system. Seeds of Hordeum vulgare L. var.Golden Promise were soaked overnight in running tap water, with aeration, before sowing on sections of Netlon mesh covered with muslin and stretched over the top of lengths of plastic guttering filled with culture solution. Culture solution was cycled through the gutters from a large reservoir by means of a pump. The flow of nutrient solution through the gutters was adjusted to a rate sufficient to prevent the concentrations of nutrient in the gutters differing from those in the reservoir due to uptake by the plants. Seedlings were subjected to a 14-h daylight regime, with a light intensity of 4.95 J cm -2 h-' at the level of the plants, and a constant temperature of 23°C. The nutrient solution used was a modified one-quarter strength Long Ashton solution (4). Nitrogen was supplied either as potassium nitrate or ammonium chloride. The volume of the reservoir was chosen to prevent the concentration of ammonia or nitrate in the culture solution from being reduced by more than 10% over a 24-h period. Labeling studies were performed on 9-d-old seedlings. At the start of a '5N-labeling experiient, the pump was stopped, and the gutters were rapidly drained and refilled with culture solution containing the nitrogen source labeled at 96% 15N atom abundance. The reservoir was exchanged for one containing the labeled nitrogen source, and the pump was restarted. The plants were sampled by removing individual sections of Netlon mesh.Extraction of Soluble Nitrogen Pools. Root and shoot tissues...