Abstract
Main conclusion
ETR/AN ratios should be in the range 7.5–10.5 for non-stressed C3 plants. Ratios extremely out of this range can be reflecting both uncontrolled plant status and technical mistakes during measurements. We urge users to explicitly refer to this ratio in future studies as a proof for internal data quality control.
Abstract
For the last few decades, the use of infra-red gas-exchange analysers (IRGAs) coupled with chlorophyll fluorometers that allow for measurements of net CO2 assimilation rate and estimates of electron transport rate over the same leaf area has been popularized. The evaluation of data from both instruments in an integrative manner can result in additional valuable information, such as the estimation of the light respiration, mesophyll conductance and the partitioning of the flux of electrons into carboxylation, oxygenation and alternative processes, among others. In this review, an additional and more ‘straight’ use of the combination of chlorophyll fluorescence and gas exchange-derived parameters is presented, namely using the direct ratio between two fully independently estimated parameters, electron transport rate (ETR)—determined by the fluorometer—and net CO2 assimilation rate (AN)—determined by the IRGA, i.e., the ETR/AN ratio, as a tool for fast detection of incongruencies in the data and potential technical problems associated with them, while checking for the study plant’s status. To illustrate this application, a compilation of 75 studies that reported both parameters for a total of 178 species under varying physiological status is presented. Values of ETR/AN between 7.5 and 10.5 were most frequently found for non-stressed C3 plants. C4 species showed an average ETR/AN ratio of 4.7. The observed ratios were larger for species with high leaf mass per area and for plants subjected to stressful factors like drought or nutritional deficit. Knowing the expected ETR/AN ratio projects this ratio as a routinary and rapid check point for guaranteeing both the correct performance of equipment and the optimal/stress status of studied plants. All known errors associated with the under- or overestimation of ETR or AN are summarized in a checklist that aims to be routinely used by any IRGA/fluorometer user to strength the validity of their data.
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Data availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available in the supplementary material of this article.
Abbreviations
- A N :
-
Net CO2 assimilation
- ETR:
-
Electron transport rate
- IRGA:
-
Infra-red gas-exchange analyser
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (MCIU, Spain) and the ERDF (FEDER) [PGC2018-093824-B-C41] and the Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (MECD, Spain), predoctoral fellowship [FPU-02054] awarded to AVP-C. We are grateful to Prof. Ignacio García-Plazaola for discussion of the sink of electrons alternatives to flinear, fcyclic and fpseudocyclic, and to all researchers that shared their ETR data for the compiled dataset when requested. We are also grateful to the anonymous referees that reviewed and improved the quality of this paper.
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Perera-Castro, A.V., Flexas, J. The ratio of electron transport to assimilation (ETR/AN): underutilized but essential for assessing both equipment’s proper performance and plant status. Planta 257, 29 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-022-04063-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-022-04063-2