Because glyoxylate inhibits CO2 fixation by intact chloroplasts and purified ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase, glyoxylate might be expected to exert some regulatory effect on photosynthesis. However, ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase activity and activation in intact chloroplasts from Spinacia oeracea L. leaves were not substantially inhibited by 10 miimolar glyoxylate. In the light, the ribulose bisphosphate pool decreased to half when 10 millimolar glyoxylate was present, whereas this pool doubled in the control. When 10 millimolar glyoxylate or formate was present during photosynthesis, the fructose bisphosphate pool in the chloroplasts doubled. Thus, glyoxylate appeared to inhibit the regeneration of ribulose bisphosphate, but not its utilization.The fixation of CO2 by intact chloroplasts was inhibited by salts of several weak acids, and the inhibition was more severe at pH 6.0 than at pH 8.0. At pH 6.0, glyoxylate inhibited CO2 fixation by 50% at 50 micromolar, and glycolate caused 50% inhibition at 150 micromolar. ways by a feedback mechanism (15, 16). Oliver and Zelitch (16) reported that glyoxylate was a potent inhibitor of CO2 fixation in isolated spinach chloroplasts, but that glyoxylate did not inhibit ribulose-P2 carboxylase activity. Recently, glyoxylate was reported to be an inhibitor of purified ribulose-P2 carboxylase/oxygenase in vitro (6). Glyoxylate is a competitive inhibitor with respect to ribulose-P2 and, in addition, forms an adduct with an amino acid residue of ribulose-P2 carboxylase/oxygenase. Glyoxylate does not selectively inhibit the carboxylase or oxygenase activities. The inhibitory nature of glyoxylate suggested that it might exert some regulatory effect on photosynthesis. Because of these possibilities, we have examined the effect of glyoxylate on photosynthesis by intact chloroplasts.
MATERIALS AND METHODSChloroplasts. Intact chloroplasts were isolated by the procedure of Nakatani and Barber (14) from spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) leaves which were obtained at a local market. Chloroplasts were suspended in a photosynthetic media composed of 330 mm sorbitol, 20 mm Bicine2, 2 mtm EDTA, 1 mM MgCl2, 1 mm MnCl2, and 50 mm sodium pyrophosphate which was adjusted to pH 8.0 with NaOH. The intactness of the chloroplast preparations was typically 70%o as determined by the ferricyanide permeability procedure (14). Chl was determined spectrophotometrically in 80%o acetone (1). Photosynthetic CO2 Fixation. An aliquot of chloroplasts was suspended in photosynthetic media containing 1 mm ribose-5-P, 0.5 mM ADP, and 5 mm NaHCO3. Photosynthetic CO2 fixation was stimulated by the addition of ribose-5-P and ADP by 10 to 15%, but CO2 fixation was not dependent on these compounds.The chloroplasts (approximately 100 jig Chl-ml-') were placed in a flattened test tube in a glass waterbath at 22°C. Illumination from a slide projector was filtered through a solution of CuS04.
Photosynthetically active radiation was measured with a LambdaInstruments LI-185 quantum meter as 2500 ,uE-s-'...