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Distinct physiological responses to a high light and low CO2 environment revealed by fluorescence quenching in photoautotrophically grown Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

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Abstract

Mechanisms for countering environmental stress are essential to photosynthetic organisms. Alteration of the photosynthetic apparatus, a mechanism for balancing the flux of light energy and carbon fixation, can be characterized by fluorescence properties. In this study, we have established a simple protocol to determine the extent of energy-dependent quenching (qE) and quenching by state transition (qT) in Chlamydomonas cells by examining their fluorescence properties under light fluctuations. We identified qE as the uncoupler-sensitive NPQ component that was rapidly relaxed upon transition to dark conditions. We characterized the qT component by determining low-temperature fluorescence spectra and analyzing a state-transition-less mutant. By these methods, we observed that similar abiotic stresses—high light conditions (where excess energy is supplied) and low CO2 conditions (where energy utilization is limited)—induced different types of NPQ. High light conditions induced mainly qE-quenching that increased gradually while low CO2 conditions induced mainly qT-quenching that peaked in 20 min and then decreased gradually. That high light and low carbon signals induced different physiological responses suggests that they triggered different genetic responses, which altered protein expression under each of the conditions.

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Abbreviations

CCM:

Carbon concentrating mechanism

Ci:

Inorganic carbons

Fm :

Maximal yield of fluorescence

Fm′:

Quenched maximal yield of fluorescence

HL:

High light

HL400 :

High light illumination at 400 μmol photon m−2 s−1

LC:

Low CO2

LHC:

Light-harvesting complexes

NPQ:

Non-photochemical quenching

PQ:

Plastoquinone

PSI and PSII:

Photosystem I and II

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Acknowledgments

We are particularly grateful to Dr. F.-A. Wollman for the gift of the DLSΔ mutant and Dr. K.Takizawa for the valuable discussion; M.I. is grateful for the JSPS Research Fellowship for Young Scientists from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science; This work was supported in part by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research to J.M. from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (No. 17570029, 18GS0318).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Institute of Low Temperature Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 060-0819, Japan

    Masakazu Iwai, Nobuyasu Kato & Jun Minagawa

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  1. Masakazu Iwai
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  2. Nobuyasu Kato
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  3. Jun Minagawa
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Correspondence to Jun Minagawa.

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Iwai, M., Kato, N. & Minagawa, J. Distinct physiological responses to a high light and low CO2 environment revealed by fluorescence quenching in photoautotrophically grown Chlamydomonas reinhardtii . Photosynth Res 94, 307–314 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-007-9220-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-007-9220-y

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