Ogren’s retrospective, published at the invitation of one of us (Govindjee), in Photosynthesis Research (Ogren 2003), provides details about the resistance he faced. The research formed a unifying theory of photorespiration which finally explained: (a) the coincident oxygen inhibition of photosynthesis [the “Warburg Effect”, first reported in 1920 (Warburg 1920)]; (b) the oxygen stimulation of photorespiratory glycolate synthesis and CO2 evolution; and (c) reversal of these effects by CO2 (see a review by Ogren 1984). We emphasize here that the equations developed by Laing et al. (1974) buy 4-Hydroxytamoxifen provided

the foundation for all kinetic models of photosynthesis, including those currently used to predict the response of plant performance to the rise in global CO2 concentration and change in temperature, topics that remain of major concern. (Richard Hageman, who died in 2002, was a plant physiologist and a professor of agronomy at the UIUC whose collaboration in this project was very helpful.) With Chris Somerville: Having found that the same enzyme was

the starting point for both processes, Ogren quickly realized that one approach to decrease selleck chemicals llc the detrimental photorespiratory process was to directly modify the enzyme and not to block the photorespiratory process, which was being promoted by others. This attracted the attention of a young researcher, Chris Somerville, who came to the lab. Chris thought that a relatively selleck chemical unknown plant, Arabidopsis would be a useful model system for a genetic approach to the controversy. Their collaboration resulted in the creation and detailed characterization of the first directed nuclear gene mutants in a higher plant (Arabidopsis), in this case with defects in photosynthetic carbon Evodiamine metabolism (e.g., Somerville and Ogren 1979; also see Somerville 1982; and Somerville 2001). We note that other nuclear gene mutants in higher plants were known. What Chris did was to make the first plant nuclear gene mutant with lesions in a specific physiological

process. These were not just the first plants with predetermined lesions in photosynthesis, but the first with predetermined lesions of any kind. That is why the experiments are so important. With these mutants they were able to genetically dissect the pathway of photorespiration and provide definitive answers to several remaining and controversial aspects of photorespiratory carbon metabolism. These pioneering studies were instrumental in establishing the usefulness of Arabidopsis as a model genetic system for higher plants and launched the careers of many scientists. One of the mutants isolated by Chris Somerville was characterized as being defective in the light-induced increase in the activity of Rubisco (Somerville et al. 1982).