Active transport, ion movements, and pH changes : I. The chemistry of pH changes.

The transport of substances across cell membranes may be the most fundamental activity of living things. When the substance transported is any ion there can be a change in the concentration of hydrogen ions on the two sides of the membrane. These hydrogen ion concentration changes are not caused by fluxes of hydrogen ions although fluxes of hydrogen ions may sometimes be involved. The reason for the apparent contradiction is quite simple. All aqueous systems are subject to two constraints: (1) to maintain the charge balance, the sum of the cationic charges must equal the sum of the anionic charges and (2) the product of the molar concentration of H(+) and the molar concentration of OH(-), established and maintained by the association and the dissociation of water, remains always at 10(-14). As a consequence the concentrations of H(+) and OH(-) are determined uniquely by differences between the concentrations of the other cations and anions, with [H(+)] and [OH(-)] being dependent variables. Hydrogen ions and hydroxyl ions can be produced or consumed in local reactions whereas any strong ions such as Cl(-), Mg(2+), or K(+) can be neither produced nor consumed in biological reactions. Further consequences of these truisms are outlined here in terms of the chemistry of the kinds of reactions which can lead to pH changes.

Active transport, ion movements, and pH changes : II. Changes of pH and ATP synthesis.

Electron transport in chloroplasts takes place across the thylakoid membrane in such a way as to redistribute ions. This redistribution can cause transmembrane electric fields and transmembrane hydrogen ion activity differences, events that are often correlated with the ability of the membrane to phosphorylate ADP. Analysis of the chemistry responsible for the phosphorylation is difficult because there seems to be no single satisfactory description of energized state of the thylakoid vesicles responsible for the photophosphorylation, the state depending on the experimental protocol employed. Under some conditions, acidification of the lumen confers on the vesicles the ability to synthesize ATP. Thus, when electron transport or preincubation in acid causes exogenous protonated buffers to accumulate in the lumen, ATP can be made in amounts commensurate with the accumulation if the pH of the medium is raised. When permeant exogenous buffers are absent an ability to make ATP also develops during prior electron transport, presumably because of protonation of membrane components. The nature of the energized state responsible for post-illumination phosphorylation in the latter instance is unclear. The energized state probably cannot then be simply a general delocalized ionic disequilibrium because of the precisely exponential nature of its decay with time after the light is off. The nature of the energized state which drives prompt phosphorylation in single stage experiments is even more puzzling. It may not depend on the kind of ion fluxes that result in a reversible pH rise in the medium. Certainly phosphorylation can begin at high efficiency when any measurable acidification of the vesicle lumen is prevented, even under conditions where the presence of a membrane potential is unlikely.

Evidence That IAA Conjugates Are Slow-Release Sources of Free IAA in Plant Tissues.

Evidence that indoleacetic acid (IAA) conjugates are metabolized via enzyme-catalyzed hydrolysis to free IAA and that their biological activities are related to the rates at which they are hydrolyzed by the tissue is presented. These conclusions are based on the following observations. Slow but continuous decarboxylation of the IAA moiety of IAA-l-alanine and IAA-glycine occurs when these conjugates are applied to pea (Pisum sativum L. cv. Alaska) stem segments. Inasmuch as IAA conjugates are protected from peroxidase-catalyzed oxidative decarboxylation, the conjugates are probably hydrolyzed and the freed IAA then further metabolized. Free IAA and IAA-l-alanine are converted, by pea stem tissue, into the same metabolites. The metabolism is enzymic, since conjugates of IAA with the d-isomers of the amino acids are inactive. Ethylene production induced by IAA-l-alanine and by IAA-glycine is correlated with their hydrolysis, as indicated by their decarboxylation and with the appearance or nonappearance of IAA metabolites in the tissues.

Biological activities of indoleacetylamino acids and their use as auxins in tissue culture.

THE AUXIN ACTIVITIES OF A NUMBER OF INDOLEACETYLAMINO ACID CONJUGATES HAVE BEEN DETERMINED IN THREE TEST SYSTEMS: growth of tomato hypocotyl explants (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. cv. Marglobe); growth of tobacco callus cultures (Nicotiana tabacum L. cv. Wisconsin 38); and ethylene production from pea stems (Pisum sativum L. cv. Alaska). The activities of the conjugates differ greatly depending on the amino acid moiety. Indoleacetyl-l-alanine supports rapid callus growth from the tomato hypocotyls while inhibiting growth of shoots and roots. Indoleacetylglycine behaves in a similar manner but is somewhat less effective in supporting callus growth and in inhibiting shoot formation. The other amino acid conjugates tested (valine, leucine, aspartic acid, threonine, methionine, phenylalanine, and proline) support shoot formation without supporting root formation or much callus growth. The tobacco callus system, which forms abundant shoots in the presence or absence of free indoleacetic acid, produces only rapid undifferentiated growth in the presence of indoleacetyl-l-alanine and indoleacetylglycine. The other conjugates inhibit shoot formation weakly if at all. Most of the conjugates induce sustained ethylene production from the pea stems but at rates well below the initial rates observed with free indoleacetic acid. Many, but not all of the effects of conjugates such as indoleacetyl-l-alanine can be mimicked by frequent renewals of the supply of free indoleacetic acid.

Photophosphorylation as a function of illumination time. II. Effects of permeant buffers.

(1) The amounts of orthophosphate, bicarbonate and tris (hydroxymethyl)-aminomethane found inside the thylakoid are almost exactly the amounts predicted by assuming that the buffers equilibrate across the membrane. Since imidazole and pyridine delay the development of post-illumination ATP formation while increasing the maximum amount of ATP formed, it follows that such relatively permeant buffers must also enter the inner aqueous space of the thylakoid. (2) Photophosphorylation begins abruptly at full steady-state efficiency and full steady-state rate as soon as the illumination time exceeds about 5 ms when permeant ions are absent or as soon as the time exceeds about 50 ms if valinomycin and KC1 are present. In either case, permeant buffers have little or no effect on the time of illumination required to initiate phosphorylation. A concentration of bicarbonate which would delay acidification of the bulk of the inner aqueous phase for at least 350 ms has no effect at all on the time of initiation of phosphorylation. In somewhat swollen chloroplasts, the combined buffering by the tris(hydroxymethyl) aminomethane and orthophosphate inside would delay acidification of the inside by 1500 ms but, even in the presence of valinomycin and KC1, the total delay in the initiation of phosphorylation is then only 65 ms. Similar discrepancies occur with all of the other buffers mentioned. (3) Since these discrepancies between internal acidification and phosphorylation are found in the presence of saturating amounts of valinomycin and KC1, it seems that photophosphorylation can occur when there are no proton concentration gradients and no electrical potential differences across the membranes which separate the medium from the greater part of the internal aqueous phase. (4) We suggest that the protons produced by electron transport may be used directly for phosphorylation without even entering the bulk of the inner aqueous phase of the lamellar system. If so, phosphorylation could proceed long before the internal pH reflected the proton activity gradients within the membrane.