Abstract
The activity of nitrate reductase (NR) and nitrite reductase (NiR) was investigated in vivo and in vitro in the roots and NR activity in 3-day-old cotyledons of cucumber seedlings. NR activity in the roots appears almost immediately after addition of nitrate ions to the induction medium, whereas, in the cotyledones NR induction is delayed. In general light enhances NR activity in the cotyledons and depresses it in the roots in experiments of short duration. Etiolation of the cotyledons reduces NR activity in the roots and leads to disappearance of the activity of this enzyme in the cotyledons, whereas the NR activity of roots kept in darkness, after transfer of the etiolated plants to light, increases threefold. In roots growing in darkness a delay in NiR induction is observed, while in those growing in ligth it occurs at the same time as NR induction. Chlormaphenicol (CAP), cycloheximide (CHI) and actinomycin D (ACM) applied at the beginning of the period of seedling induction with initrates inhibit NR activity in the cotyledons, whereas in the roots only CHI and ACM exert such an effect. To sum up, NR is synthesized in cucumber roots and cotyledons de novo on the cytoplasmic polyribosomes, and light per se is not indispensable for this synthesis, but it has an indirect influence on the activity level of NR and NiR both in the roots and the cotyledons.
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