Abstract
In response to low or high intensities of light, the chloroplasts in the mesophyll cells of the leaf are able to increase or decrease their exposure to light by accumulating at the upper and lower sides or along the side walls of the cell respectively. This movement, regulated by the phototropin blue light photoreceptors phot1 and phot2, results in a decreased or increased transmission of light through the leaf. This way the plant is able to optimize harvesting of the incoming light or avoid damage caused by excess light. Here we describe a method that indirectly measures the movement of chloroplasts by taking advantage of the resulting change in leaf transmittance. By using a microplate reader, quantitative measurements of chloroplast accumulation or avoidance can be monitored over time, for multiple samples with relatively little hands-on time.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Kasahara M, Kagawa T, Oikawa K, Suetsugu N, Miyao M, Wada M (2002) Chloroplast avoidance movement reduces photodamage in plants. Nature 420(6917):829–832. doi:10.1038/nature01213
Trojan A, Gabrys H (1996) Chloroplast distribution in Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) depends on light conditions during growth. Plant Physiol 111(2):419–425
Kong SG, Wada M (2014) Recent advances in understanding the molecular mechanism of chloroplast photorelocation movement. Biochim Biophys Acta 1837(4):522–530. doi:10.1016/j.bbabio.2013.12.004
Kagawa T, Sakai T, Suetsugu N, Oikawa K, Ishiguro S, Kato T, Tabata S, Okada K, Wada M (2001) Arabidopsis NPL1: a phototropin homolog controlling the chloroplast high-light avoidance response. Science 291(5511):2138–2141. doi:10.1126/science.291.5511.2138
Sakai T, Kagawa T, Kasahara M, Swartz TE, Christie JM, Briggs WR, Wada M, Okada K (2001) Arabidopsis nph1 and npl1: blue light receptors that mediate both phototropism and chloroplast relocation. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 98(12):6969–6974. doi:10.1073/pnas.101137598
Wada M (2013) Chloroplast movement. Plant Sci 210:177–182. doi:10.1016/j.plantsci.2013.05.016
Kagawa T, Wada M (2000) Blue light-induced chloroplast relocation in Arabidopsis thaliana as analyzed by microbeam irradiation. Plant Cell Physiol 41(1):84–93
Inoue Y, Shibata K (1973) Light-induced chloroplast rearrangements and their action spectra as measured by absorption spectrophotometry. Planta 114(4):341–358. doi:10.1007/BF00387947
Berg R, Koniger M, Schjeide BM, Dikmak G, Kohler S, Harris GC (2006) A simple low-cost microcontroller-based photometric instrument for monitoring chloroplast movement. Photosynth Res 87(3):303–311. doi:10.1007/s11120-005-9012-1
DeBlasio SL, Mullen JL, Luesse DR, Hangarter RP (2003) Phytochrome modulation of blue light-induced chloroplast movements in Arabidopsis. Plant Physiol 133(4):1471–1479. doi:10.1104/pp. 103.029116
Kodama Y, Suetsugu N, Kong SG, Wada M (2010) Two interacting coiled-coil proteins, WEB1 and PMI2, maintain the chloroplast photorelocation movement velocity in Arabidopsis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 107(45):19591–19596. doi:10.1073/pnas.1007836107
Kadota A, Sato Y, Wada M (2000) Intracellular chloroplast photorelocation in the moss Physcomitrella patens is mediated by phytochrome as well as by a blue-light receptor. Planta 210(6):932–937
Kawai H, Kanegae T, Christensen S, Kiyosue T, Sato Y, Imaizumi T, Kadota A, Wada M (2003) Responses of ferns to red light are mediated by an unconventional photoreceptor. Nature 421(6920):287–290. doi:10.1038/nature01310
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Jon Hughes for support and funding H.J. (Hu702/5-3), the members of his lab for valuable suggestions on the experimental setup, and Nora Schorn for proofreading the manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Johansson, H., Zeidler, M. (2016). Automatic Chloroplast Movement Analysis. In: Duque, P. (eds) Environmental Responses in Plants. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1398. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3356-3_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3356-3_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Humana Press, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-3354-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-3356-3
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols