Untangling metabolic and spatial interactions of stress tolerance in plants. 1. Patterns of carbon metabolism within leaves.

The localization of the key photoreductive and oxidative processes and some stress-protective reactions within leaves of mesophytic C(3) plants were investigated. The role of light in determining the profile of Rubisco, glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase, catalase, fumarase, and cytochrome-c-oxidase across spinach leaves was examined by exposing leaves to illumination on either the adaxial or abaxial leaf surfaces. Oxygen evolution in fresh paradermal leaf sections and CO(2) gas exchange in whole leaves under adaxial or abaxial illumination was also examined.