Vitamin C Is Essential For Plant Growth

Sep. 27, 2007 â?? Scientists from the University of Exeter and Shimane University in Japan have proved for the first time that vitamin C is essential for plant growth. This discovery could have implications for agriculture and for the production of vitamin C dietary supplements.The study, which is now published online in The Plant Journal, describes the newly-identified enzyme, GDP-L-galactose phosphorylase, which produces vitamin C, or ascorbate, in plants. Vitamin C is already known to be an antioxidant, which helps plants deal with stresses from drought to ozone and UV radiation, but until now it was not known that plants could not grow without it. Professor Nicholas Smirnoff of the University of Exeter, lead author on the paper said: â??Vitamin C is the most abundant antioxidant in plants and yet its functions are poorly understood. By discovering that the new enzyme is encoded by two genes, we were able to engineer plants that were unable to grow beyond the seedling stage without vitamin C supplementation. The discovery also identifies the new enzyme as a key player in controlling vitamin C accumulation in response to light. Vitamin C provides protection against the harmful side-effects of light during photosynthesis, the process by which light energy is used to convert carbon dioxide into plant matter.