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The hidden function of photosynthesis: a sensing system for environmental conditions that regulates plant acclimation responses

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Abstract

Plants convert light energy from the sun into chemical energy by photosynthesis. Since they are sessile, they have to deal with a wide range of conditions in their immediate environment. Many abiotic and biotic parameters exhibit considerable fluctuations which can have detrimental effects especially on the efficiency of photosynthetic light harvesting. During evolution, plants, therefore, evolved a number of acclimation processes which help them to adapt photosynthesis to such environmental changes. This includes protective mechanisms such as excess energy dissipation and processes supporting energy redistribution, e.g. state transitions or photosystem stoichiometry adjustment. Intriguingly, all these responses are triggered by photosynthesis itself via the interplay of its light reaction and the Calvin–Benson cycle with the residing environmental condition. Thus, besides its primary function in harnessing and converting light energy, photosynthesis acts as a sensing system for environmental changes that controls molecular acclimation responses which adapt the photosynthetic function to the environmental change. Important signalling parameters directly or indirectly affected by the environment are the pH gradient across the thylakoid membrane and the redox states of components of the photosynthetic electron transport chain and/or electron end acceptors coupled to it. Recent advances demonstrate that these signals control post-translational modifications of the photosynthetic protein complexes and also affect plastid and nuclear gene expression machineries as well as metabolic pathways providing a regulatory framework for an integrated response of the plant to the environment at all cellular levels.

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Abbreviations

Chl:

Chlorophyll

CP:

Chloroplast

CSK:

Chloroplast sensor kinase

Cyt b 6 f :

Cytochrome b 6 f complex

FTR:

Ferredoxin–thioredoxin oxidoreductase

LHC:

Light-harvesting systems

LHCIIb:

The major light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b complexes of photosystem II

LTR:

Long-term response

PAR:

Photosynthetic active radiation

PEP:

Plastid encoded RNA polymerase

P-LHCIIb:

Phosphorylated LHCIIb

PQ:

Plastoquinone

PS:

Photosystem

PTK:

Plastid transcription kinase

RC:

Reaction centre

RubisCO:

Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase

SIG1:

Sigma factor 1

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Acknowledgments

Work in the laboratories of the authors is supported by grants from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), the Chinese Academy of Science and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Junior Research Group “Plant acclimation to environmental changes: Protein analysis by MS”, Department of Plant Physiology, Institute of General Botany and Plant Physiology, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Dornburger Str. 159, 07743, Jena, Germany

    Thomas Pfannschmidt

  2. Key Laboratory of Photobiology, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Chunhong Yang

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  1. Thomas Pfannschmidt
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  2. Chunhong Yang
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Correspondence to Thomas Pfannschmidt or Chunhong Yang.

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Handling Editor: Peter Nick

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Pfannschmidt, T., Yang, C. The hidden function of photosynthesis: a sensing system for environmental conditions that regulates plant acclimation responses. Protoplasma 249 (Suppl 2), 125–136 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00709-012-0398-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00709-012-0398-2

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