Abstract
Under conditions of new nitrogen availability and low light intensities, light quality (blue, green, or red light) was not found to affect carbon fixation patterns into major metabolic fractions (total ethanol soluble, carbohydrate, and protein) in preconditioned nitrogen enriched or limited apical tips of Gracilaria verrucosa Papenfuss. Within the ethanol soluble fractions of both nitrogen enriched and limited tips, blue light treatment led to a greater percentage of 14 carbon in amino acids as compared to non-ninhydrin reactive metabolites. A lesser effect was observed with red light, and green light did not appear to stimulate amino acid synthesis appreciably. The low intensity blue light effect in G. verrucosa appears to be an enhancement of nonphotosynthetic carbon incorporation into amino acids, possibly through some form of the urea-ornithine cycle.
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Communicated by I. Morris, Durham
Harbor Branch Foundation Contribution No. 237
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Bird, K.T., Dawes, C.J. & Romeo, J.T. Light quality effects on carbon metabolism and allocation in Gracilaria verrucosa . Mar. Biol. 64, 219–223 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00397112
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00397112