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ΔpH-Dependent Fluorescence Quenching and Its Photoprotective Role in the Unicellular Red Alga Rhodella Violacea

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Photosynthetica

Abstract

Plants have developed various photoprotective mechanisms to resist irradiation stress. One of the photoprotective mechanisms described in the literature for LHC2-containing organisms involves a down-regulation of photosystem (PS) 2 occurring simultaneously with the build-up of a proton gradient across the thylakoid membrane (ΔpH). It is often correlated with deepoxidation of xanthophylls located in LHC2. In Rhodophyta instead of LHC2, the peripheral antenna of PS2 consists of a large extramembrane complex, the phycobilisome (PBS), which transfers its excitation to the core antennae of PS2 composed of the CP43 and CP47 protein-chlorophyll complexes and there is no xanthophyll cycle. In the red alga Rhodella violacea a ΔpH-dependent chlorophyll (Chl) a fluorescence quenching can be formed. We characterised this quenching, studied the effects of various irradiances and inhibitors. Under photoinhibitory conditions, the ΔpH-dependent Chl fluorescence quenching exerts a photoprotective role and delays the kinetics of photoinhibition. It is the first time that such a photoprotective mechanism is described in PBS-containing organisms.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UMR 8543, CNRS, Dynamique des membranes végétales, ENS, 46 rue d'Ulm, 75005, Paris, France

    M. Ritz, K.V. Neverov & A.-L. Etienne

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  1. M. Ritz
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  2. K.V. Neverov
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  3. A.-L. Etienne
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Ritz, M., Neverov, K. & Etienne, AL. ΔpH-Dependent Fluorescence Quenching and Its Photoprotective Role in the Unicellular Red Alga Rhodella Violacea . Photosynthetica 37, 267–280 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007164207022

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