Mother-in-Law's Tongue (Courtesy of wordpress.com)
Papyrus (Courtesy
of superstock.com) Rubisco concentration differences in plant tissues in varying arid environments
By: Ngongbo, Sheila A.; Silke, Kristina T.
Mother-in-Law's Tongue (Courtesy of wordpress.com)
Papyrus (Courtesy
of superstock.com)
Hibiscus
(Courtesy of dkimage)
Gooseberry (Courtesy of Peterson)
ABSTRACT
Rubisco (Ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate Carboxylase) is by far the most abundant protein in plant leaves, found within the stromal space of the cell’s chloroplasts. It is used in the Calvin cycle to catalyze the first major step of carbon fixation. Water availability from the environment appear to have an influence on the rubisco protein in a plant’s leaves. Therefore, we hypothesize that plants in dry environments will have higher concentrations of Rubisco. The level of regulation can be affected by water availability as well as the amount of rubisco. Four plant species of varying environments were collected: papyrus from an extremely wet environment, hibiscus from a moderately wet environment, mother-in-law's tongue and gooseberry from very dry environments. To determine the presence of the rubisco protein in these plant tissues, samples were run on a Western Blot. The gooseberry and mother-in-law's tongue appear to regulate their rubisco protein before translation; while papyrus and hibiscus were regulated after translation. In order to find the relative concentrations of rubisco protein in each plant tissue, the rubisco genes were amplified in a Real-Time PCR. Gooseberry had the greatest amount of rubisco genes while papyrus had the least according the RT-PCR. Hibiscus and mother-in-law's tongue a relatively moderate amount of rubisco genes. It appears that the level of regulation and concentration of rubisco in plant leaves is related to the aridity of an environment. Furthers studies with significantly more plant species would need to be done in order to further this hypothesis.