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Leaf Wilting Movement Can Protect Water-Stressed Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) Plants Against Photoinhibition of Photosynthesis and Maintain Carbon Assimilation in the Field

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Abstract

Under severe water stress, leaf wilting is quite general in higher plants. This passive movement can reduce the energy load on a leaf. This paper reports an experimental test of the hypothesis that leaf wilting movement has a protective function that mitigates against photoinhibition of photosynthesis in the field. The experiments exposed cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) to two water regimes: water-stressed and well-watered. Leaf wilting movement occurred in water-stressed plants as the water potential decreased to −4.1 MPa, reducing light interception but maintaining comparable quantum yields of photosystem II (PS II; Yield for short) and the proportion of total PS II centers that were open (qP). Predrawn F v/F m (potential quantum yield of PS II) as an indicator of overnight recovery of PS II from photoinhibition was higher than or similar to that in well-watered plants. Compared with water-stressed cotton leaves for which wilting movement was permitted, water-stressed cotton leaves restrained from such movement had significantly increased leaf temperature and instantaneous CO2 assimilation rates in the short term, but reduced Yield, qP, and F v/F m. In the long term, predrawn F v/F m and CO2 assimilation capacity were reduced in water-stressed leaves restrained from wilting movement. These results suggest that, under water stress, leaf wilting movement could reduce the incident light on leaves and their heat load, alleviate damage to the photosynthetic apparatus due to photoinhibition, and maintain considerable carbon assimilation capacity in the long term despite a partial loss of instantaneous carbon assimilation in the short term.

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Abbreviations

A :

CO2 assimilation rate (in micromoles of CO2 per square meter per second)

F m :

maximal chlorophyll fluorescence yield

F o :

ground chlorophyll fluorescence yield

Fv, Fv′:

maximum variable fluorescence in the dark- and light-adapted state, respectively

Fv/Fm:

potential quantum yield of photosystem II

Fm′:

maximum light-adapted fluorescence

F s :

steady-state fluorescence yield during illumination

NPQ:

nonphotochemical quenching

PAR:

photosynthetically active radiation (in micromoles per square meter per second)

PS II:

photosystem II

qP:

photochemical quenching coefficient

Yield:

PS II quantum yield in the light

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Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to Dr. Da-Yong Fan for his substantial help in this study and Dr. Shou-Ren Zhang for his valuable comments on an earlier version of this paper. We also thank Dr. Zhi-Guo Han for the technical assistance on chlorophyll fluorescence. This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 30460063), by the National Key Technology R&D Program of China (grant no. 2007BAD44B07), and by the Open Fund of the Key Laboratory of Oasis Eco-agriculture, Xinjiang Production and Construction Group, China (grant no. 200403).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Key Laboratory of Oasis Eco-agriculture, Xinjiang Production and Construction Group, Shihezi University, Shihezi, 832003, People’s Republic of China

    Ya-Li Zhang, Hong-Zhi Zhang, Ming-Wei Du, Wei Li, Hong-Hai Luo & Wang-Feng Zhang

  2. Division of Plant Sciences, Research School of Biology, College of Medicine, Biology and Environment, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 0200, Australia

    Wah-Soon Chow

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  1. Ya-Li Zhang
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  2. Hong-Zhi Zhang
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Correspondence to Wang-Feng Zhang.

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Zhang, YL., Zhang, HZ., Du, MW. et al. Leaf Wilting Movement Can Protect Water-Stressed Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) Plants Against Photoinhibition of Photosynthesis and Maintain Carbon Assimilation in the Field. J. Plant Biol. 53, 52–60 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12374-009-9085-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12374-009-9085-z

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