Investigating the role of the photorespiratory pathway in non-photosynthetic tissues

Abstract

Whilst photorespiration represents one of the dominant pathway fluxes in photosynthetic tissues there are hints from publically available gene expression data such as that housed in the bioarray resource (BAR; www.bar.utoronto.ca) that several of the constituent enzymes are present in roots and other heterotrophic tissues. Here we describe a protocol based on modification of the gaseous environment surrounding individual tissues of mutant and wild type Arabidopsis and evaluation of the consequences. This method could additionally easily be used for larger plants.