Activities of Carbondioxide Fixing Enzymes in Maize Tissue Cultures in Comparison to Young Seedlings

Most callus cultures excised from higher plants turn green under proper physico-chemical, nutritional and hormonal regimes. Some of these cultures are reported to have mixotrophic and autotrophic mode of nutrition(1–3). Photoautotrophic cell cultures provide a system for studying the physiological and biochemical aspects of photosynthesis at cellular level. There has been considerable speculation about the connection between “Kranz” anatomy and physiology of C4 plants. There are increasing number of reports which suggest that less of a dependence exists on “Kranz” anatomy than has long been believed (4). Present investigations were undertaken with the objective to study the enzyme patterns during different stages of leaf development and callus cultures, by characterising the PEPC and RuBISCO.