Respiration and Carbon Assimilate Use

Respiration is the primary process linking the assimilation of C and energy during photosynthesis with their use in growth, maintenance, transport, and nutrient acquisition. Respiration generates usable energy, reductant, and in­ termediates (C skeletons) from an array of substrates and releases CO2 and heat as bypro ducts (Beevers, 1961). James (1971) wrote, "nothing in [living] cells happens without the support of their respiration." Thus, crop growth and productivity are functions of respiration as well as of photosynthesis and morphogenesis, with up to one-half of the C assimilated by crops in pho­ tosynthesis (less photorespiration) subsequently "lost" as respiratory CO2 (Table 9A-l). Because respiration is a large component of a crop's C balance, it is important to understand how the rate of respiration is controlled, how respiration is related to growth (are the two coupled?), and whether respira­ tion in crops is operating as efficiently as its biochemistry allows. In this chapter, the pathways of respiration, the stoichiometries of respiratory substrate consumption and end-product generation, and the meta­ bolic controls of respiration are outlined. The growth and maintenance model of respiration and physiological controls of respiration rate also are reviewed. Measured respiration rates are compared to rates predicted from analyses of the underlying biochemistry. The difference between these rates is an in­ dication of the gains that might be made in crop growth as a result of using respiratory rate and efficiency as breeding program selection criteria. The coordinated activities of glycolysis, the oxidative pentose phosphate ­ (OPP) network, the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, the respiratory chain, oxidative phosphorylation, and associated metabolism makeup respiration (Beevers, 1961; Douce, 1985). Respiratory reactions do not operate in isola­ tion from the rest of metabolism; many other pathways branch from and converge on respiration, as befits a process central to the whole of metabolism. The starting point (i.e., initial substrate) of plant respiration is variable. In a photosynthetically active cell, triose-P leaving chloroplasts can enter glycolysis and the OPP network in the cytosol directly. In germinat-

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