Rapid oxygen isotopic exchange between bicarbonate and water during photosynthesis

Whether rapid oxygen isotopic exchange between bicarbonate and water occurs in photosynthesis is the key to determine the source of oxygen by classic ¹⁸O-labeled photosynthetic oxygen evolution experiments. Here we show that both Microcystis aeruginosa and Chlamydomonas reinhardtii utilize a significant proportion (>16%) of added bicarbonate as a carbon source for photosynthesis. However, oxygen isotopic signal in added bicarbonate cannot be traced in the oxygen in organic matter synthesized by these photosynthetic organisms. This contradicts the current photosynthesis theory, which states that photosynthetic oxygen evolution comes only from water, and oxygen in photosynthetic organic matter comes only from carbon dioxide. We conclude that the photosynthetic organisms undergo rapid exchange of oxygen isotope between bicarbonate and water during photosynthesis. At the same time, this study also provides isotopic evidence for a new mechanism that half of the oxygen in photosynthetic oxygen evolution comes from bicarbonate photolysis and half comes from water photolysis, which provides a new explanation for the bicarbonate effect, and suggests that the Kok-Joliot cycle of photosynthetic oxygen evolution, must be modified to include a molecule of bicarbonate in addition to one molecule of water which in turn must be incorporated into the cycle instead of two water molecules. Furthermore, this study provides a theoretical basis for constructing a newer artificial photosynthetic reactor coupling light reactions with the dark reactions.