Studies on Nitrite Metabolism in Higher Plants.

Abstract

Nitrite disappears almost immediately upon being taken up by green wheat leaves with a simultaneous evolution of a gas which was found to be mostly oxygen. Two separate experiments with N15O2- showed that 82% of the N15O2-was reduced to amino nitrogen and 18% was given off as N2. These experiments support the theory that nitrite is an intermediate in nitrate reduction. The ratio of O2 evolution to nitrite disappearance was found to be approximately 1.4, indicating that photolysis of water is the source of reducing substance. The dependence of nitrite reduction on chlorophyll is also shown.