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Energy transfer in Anabaena variabilis filaments adapted to nitrogen-depleted and nitrogen-enriched conditions studied by time-resolved fluorescence

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Abstract

Nitrogen is among the most important nutritious elements for photosynthetic organisms such as plants, algae, and cyanobacteria. Therefore, nitrogen depletion severely compromises the growth, development, and photosynthesis of these organisms. To preserve their integrity under nitrogen-depleted conditions, filamentous nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria reduce atmospheric nitrogen to ammonia, and self-adapt by regulating their light-harvesting and excitation energy-transfer processes. To investigate the changes in the primary processes of photosynthesis, we measured the steady-state absorption and fluorescence spectra and time-resolved fluorescence spectra (TRFS) of whole filaments of the nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium Anabaena variabilis at 77 K. The filaments were grown in standard and nitrogen-free media for 6 months. The TRFS were measured with a picosecond time-correlated single photon counting system. Despite the phycobilisome degradation, the energy-transfer paths within phycobilisome and from phycobilisome to both photosystems were maintained. However, the energy transfer from photosystem II to photosystem I was suppressed and a specific red chlorophyll band appeared under the nitrogen-depleted condition.

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Abbreviations

APC:

Allophycocyanin

Car:

Carotenoid

Chl:

Chlorophyll

FDAS:

Fluorescence decay-associated spectra

PC:

Phycocyanin

PS:

Photosystem

PBS:

Phycobilisome

TRFS:

Time-resolved fluorescence spectra

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 16H06553 to S. Akimoto.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Science, Kobe University, Kobe, 657-8501, Japan

    Aya Onishi & Seiji Akimoto

  2. Graduate School of Engineering, Kobe University, Kobe, 657-8501, Japan

    Shimpei Aikawa & Akihiko Kondo

  3. Molecular Photoscience Research Center, Kobe University, Kobe, 657-8501, Japan

    Seiji Akimoto

Authors
  1. Aya Onishi
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  2. Shimpei Aikawa
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  3. Akihiko Kondo
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  4. Seiji Akimoto
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Correspondence to Seiji Akimoto.

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Onishi, A., Aikawa, S., Kondo, A. et al. Energy transfer in Anabaena variabilis filaments adapted to nitrogen-depleted and nitrogen-enriched conditions studied by time-resolved fluorescence. Photosynth Res 133, 317–326 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-017-0352-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11120-017-0352-4

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