Acclimation of Arabidopsis thaliana to long-term CO2 enrichment and nitrogen supply is basically a matter of growth rate adjustment

The long-term response of Arabidopsis thaliana to increasing CO2 was evaluated in plants grown in 800 μl l−1 CO2 from sowing and maintained, in hydroponics, on three nitrogen supplies: “low,”“medium” and “high.” The global response to high CO2 and N-supply was evaluated by measuring growth parameters in parallel with photosynthetic activity, leaf carbohydrates, ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) messenger RNA and protein, stomatal conductance (gs) and density. CO2 enrichment was found to stimulate biomass production, whatever the N-supply. This stimulation was transient on low N-supply and persisted throughout the whole vegetative growth only in high N-supply. Acclimation on low N–high CO2 was not associated with carbohydrate accumulation or with a strong reduction in Rubisco amount or activity. At high N-supply, growth stimulation by high CO2 was mainly because of the acceleration of leaf production and expansion while other parameters such as specific leaf area, root/shoot ratio and gs appeared to be correlated with total leaf area. Our results thus suggest that, in strictly controlled and stable growing conditions, acclimation of A. thaliana to long-term CO2 enrichment is mostly controlled by growth rate adjustment.