Using the fractionation of hydrogen and carbon isotopes to analyse the mechanisms of the primary processes of photosynthesis.

光合作用中二氧化碳固定和减少的主要过程在有机物的同位素组成中留下了它们的特征。尽管这些特征在地球化学、生物学和气候学中被广泛用于推断生物圈的动态和历史，但它们提供的关于产生它们的过程机制的信息尚未得到充分利用。我们建议绘制氢同位素分馏的潜在生物化学图谱，评估其指示植物水分关系的能力，并利用碳同位素判别来探测二氧化碳固定酶Rubisco的催化化学。

The primary processes of CO2 fixation and reduction in photosynthesis leave their signatures in the isotopic composition of organic matter. Although these signatures are used widely in geochemistry, biology and climatology to infer the dynamics and history of the biosphere, the information they provide about the mechanisms of the processes that produce them has not been exploited fully. We propose to map the underlying biochemistry responsible for fractionation of hydrogen isotopes, to assess its ability to indicate the water relations of plants, and to use carbon-isotope discrimination to probe the catalytic chemistry of the CO2-fixing enzyme, Rubisco.