Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Differential regulation of high light tolerance in the mutant and wild-type Anacystis cells

  • Published:
Current Microbiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

A high light-tolerant mutant of the unicellular cyanobacterium, Anacystis nidulans, was able to tolerate about threefold higher light intensity (30 W/m2) when compared with the wild type (10 W/m2). The results on the Hill activity and whole chain electron transport in both the mutant and wild-type cells exhibited an opposite response to an increase in the light intensity beyond the normal light condition (10 W/m2). Photoinactivation of the electron transport process occurred in both the strains beyond their respective photosynthesis-saturating light intensities. However, mutant cells were able to retain efficiently high photosystem II (PS II) activity (Hill activity) as compared with the wild-type cells.

In the wild-type cells, both the oxidizing and reducing sides of the photosynthetic electron transport chain were found to be damaged by the high fluence rate, unlike the mutant cells in which only the oxidizing side of PS II was inactivated. With the help of exogenous electron donors hydroxylamine (NH2OH) and diphenyl carbazide (DPC) photoinactivated sites on the electron transfer chain were delineated. Further, the mutant cells showed active repair of the photoinactivated sites within 48 h after imposition of the normal conditions, whereas in the case of the wild-type cells placed under the same condition, only the oxidizing side was repaired. The active repair process of the damaged sites for photosynthesis was again confirmed by the use of inhibitors of protein synthesis such as chloramphenicol, rifampicin, and l-methionine, dlsulfoximine (MSX), a glutamine synthetase (GS) inhibitor.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Literature Cited

  1. Allen MB (1968) Simple condition for the growth of unicellular blue green alga on plates. J Phycol 4:1–4

    Google Scholar 

  2. Anderson JM (1986) Photoregulation of the composition, function and structure of thylakoid membranes. Annu Rev Plant Physiol 37:93–136

    Google Scholar 

  3. Boardman NK (1977) comparative photosynthesis of sun and shade plants. Annu Rev Plant Physiol 28:355–377

    Google Scholar 

  4. Borbely G, Suranyi G, Korcz A, Palfi Z (1985) Effect of heat shock on protein synthesis in the cyanobacterium Synechococcus sp. strain PCC 6301. J Bacteriol 161:1125–1130

    Google Scholar 

  5. Chow WS, Anderson JM, Melis A (1990) The photosystem stoichiometry in thylakoids of some Australian shade-adapted plant species. Aust J Plant Physiol 17:665–674

    Google Scholar 

  6. Diner BA, Wollman FA (1979) Functional comparison of the photosystem II center-antenna complex of a phycocyanin-less mutant of Cyanidium caladrium with that of Chlorella pyrenoidosa. Plant Physiol 63:20–25

    Google Scholar 

  7. Döhler G (1983) Photosynthetic 14CO2 fixation in differently pigmented Anabaena cylindrica. Z Pflanzenphysiol 110:17–27

    Google Scholar 

  8. Golden SS (1988) Mutagenesis of cyanobacteria by classical and gene-transfer-based methods. Methods Enzymol 167:714–727

    Google Scholar 

  9. Gong H, Nilsen S, Allen JF (1993) Photoinhibition of photosynthesis in vivo—involvement of multiple sites in a photodamage process under CO2 and O2 free conditions. Biochim Biophys Acta 1142:115–122

    Google Scholar 

  10. Hauska G (1977) Artificial electron acceptors and donors. In: Trebst A, Ayron M, eds. Encyclopedia of plant physiology, Vol 5. Berlin: Springer Verlag, pp 253–265

    Google Scholar 

  11. Holt AS, French CS (1948) Oxygen production by illuminated chloroplasts suspended in solutions of oxidants. Arch Biochem 19:368–378

    Google Scholar 

  12. Horton P, Hague A (1988) Studies of the induction of chlorophyll fluorescence in isolated barley protoplasts IV. Resolution of non-photochemical quenching. Biochim Biophys Acta 932:107–115

    Google Scholar 

  13. Hughes ED, Gorham PR, Zehnder A (1958) Toxicity of a unialgal culture of Microcystis aeruginosa. Can J Microbiol 4:225–236

    Google Scholar 

  14. Kyle DJ (1987) The biochemical basis for photoinhibition of photosystem II. In: Kyle DJ, Osmond CB, Arntzen CJ, eds. Topics in photosynthesis. Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp 197–226

    Google Scholar 

  15. Laemmli UK (1970) Clevage of structural proteins during the assembly of the head of bacteriophage T4. Nature 227:680–685

    Google Scholar 

  16. Leverenz JW, Falk S, Pilstrom CM, Samuelsson G (1990) The effects of photoinhibition on the photosynthetic light response curve of green plant cells (Chlamydomonas reinhardtii). Planta 182:161–168

    Google Scholar 

  17. Lönneborg A, Kalla SR, Sammuelsson G, Gustafsson P, Öquist G (1988) Light regulated expression of the psbA transport in the cyanobacterium Anacystis nidulans. FEBS Lett 240:110–114

    Google Scholar 

  18. Lowry OH, Rosebrough NJ, Farr AL, Randall RJ (1951) Protein measurements by folin-phenol reagent. J Biol Chem 193:266–275

    Google Scholar 

  19. Murakami A, Fujita Y (1991) Steady state of photosynthetic electron transport in cells of the cyanophyte Synechocystis PCC 6714 having different stoichiometry between PS I and PS II: analysis of flash-induced oxidation reduction of cytochrome f and P700 under steady state of photosynthesis. Plant Cell Physiol 32:213–222

    Google Scholar 

  20. Öquist G, Chow WS, Anderson JM (1992a) Photoinhibition of photosynthesis represents a mechanism for the long term regulation of photosystem II. Planta 186:450–460

    Google Scholar 

  21. Öquist G, Anderson JM, McCaffery S, Chow WS (1992b) Mechanistic differences in photoinhibition of sun and shade plants. Planta 188:422–431

    Google Scholar 

  22. Osmond CB (1981) Photorespiration and photoinhibition. Some implications for the energetics of photosynthesis. Biochim Biophys Acta 639:77–98

    Google Scholar 

  23. Powles SB (1984) Photoinhibition of photosynthesis induced by visible light. Annu Rev Plant Physiol 35:15–44

    Google Scholar 

  24. Powles SB, Osmond CB, Thorne SW (1979) Photoinhibition of intact attached leaves from C3 plants illuminated in the absence of both carbon dioxide and of photorespiration. Plant Physiol 64:982–988

    Google Scholar 

  25. Samuelsson G, Lönneborg A, Gustafsson P, Öquist G (1987) The susceptibility of photosynthesis to photoinhibition and the capacity of recovery in high and low light grown cyanobacteria, Anacystis nidulans. Plant Physiol 83:438–441

    Google Scholar 

  26. Sherman LA, Cunnigham J (1979) Photosynthetic characteristics of temperature sensitive high fluorescence mutants of the blue-green alga, Synechococcus cedrorum. Plant Sci Lett 14: 121–131

    Google Scholar 

  27. Sundby C, Schiött T (1992) Characterization of the reversible state of photoinhibition occurring in vitro under anaerobic conditions. Photosynth Res 33:195–202

    Google Scholar 

  28. Trebst A (1974) Measurement of Hill reactions and photoreduction. Methods Enzymol 24B:145–165

    Google Scholar 

  29. Vernotte C, Picaud M, Kirilovsky D, Olive J, Ajlani G, Astier C (1992) Changes in the photosynthetic apparatus in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6714 following light to dark and dark to light transitions. Photosynth Res 32:45–57

    Google Scholar 

  30. Wards B, Myers J (1972) Photosynthetic properties of permeaplasts of Anacystis. Plant Physiol 50:547–550

    Google Scholar 

  31. Wild A (1979) Physiologie der Photosynthese höherer Pflanzen. Die Anpassung an die Lichtbedingungen. Ber Dtsch Bot Ges 92:341–364

    Google Scholar 

  32. Wunschmann G, Brand JJ (1992) Rapid turnover of a component required for photosynthesis explains temperature dependence and kinetics of photoinhibition in a cyanobacterium Synechococcus 6301. Planta 186:426–433

    Google Scholar 

  33. Yamashita T, Butler WL (1969) Inhibition of Hill reaction by tris and restoration by electron donation to photosystem 2. Plant Physiol 44:435–438

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Author notes

  1. D. P. Singh

    Present address: Department of Microbiology, Avadh University, 224001, Faizabad, India

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology, Barkatullah University, 462026, Bhopal, India

    Kavita Verma & D. P. Singh

Authors
  1. Kavita Verma
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. D. P. Singh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Verma, K., Singh, D.P. Differential regulation of high light tolerance in the mutant and wild-type Anacystis cells. Current Microbiology 30, 373–379 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00369865

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00369865

Keywords

Search

Navigation