Nitrites and Nitrates are converted to ________ by the plants

Nitrate reduction in plants is carried out in two steps. Nitrate is first reduced to nitrite (NO²⁻) in the cytosol by nitrate reductase using NADH or NADPH. Nitrite is then reduced to ammonia in the chloroplasts (plastids in roots) by a ferredoxin-dependent nitrite reductase. In photosynthesising tissues, it uses an isoform of ferredoxin (Fd1) that is reduced by PSI, while in the root, it uses a form of ferredoxin (Fd3) that has a less negative midpoint potential and can be reduced easily by NADPH. In non-photosynthesising tissues, NADPH is generated by glycolysis and the pentose phosphate pathway. In the chloroplasts, glutamine synthetase incorporates this ammonia as the amide group of glutamine using glutamate as a substrate. Glutamate synthase (Fd-GOGAT and NADH-GOGAT) transfer the amide group onto an 2-oxoglutarate molecule producing two glutamates. Further transaminations are carried out to make other amino acids (most commonly aspargine) from glutamine.