Ammonium assimilation and amino acid metabolism in conifers

Conifers are the most important group of gymnosperms, which include tree species of great ecological and economic importance that dominate large ecosystems and play an essential role in global carbon fixation. Nitrogen (N) economy has a special importance in these woody plants that are able to cope with seasonal periods of growth and development over a large number of years. As N availability in the forest soil is extremely low, efficient mechanisms are required for the assimilation, storage, mobilization, and recycling of inorganic and organic forms of N. The cyclic interconversion of arginine and the amides glutamine and asparagine plays a central role in the N metabolism of conifers and the regulation of these pathways is of major relevance to the N economy of the plant. In this paper, details of recent progress in our understanding of the metabolism of arginine and the other major amino acids glutamine, glutamate, aspartate, and asparagine in pine, a conifer model tree, are presented and discussed.