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Plant function and evolutionary biology
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Photosynthetic Responses of Pisum sativum to an Increase in Irradiance During Growth. II. Thylakoid Membrane Components

WS Chow and JM Anderson

Australian Journal of Plant Physiology 14(1) 9 - 19
Published: 1987

Abstract

Following the transfer of pea plants grown at low irradiance (60 µmol photons m-2 s-1, 16 h light/8 h dark cycles) to high irradiance (390 µmol photons m-2 s-1), the extents and time courses of the increase in the concentrations of thylakoid membrane components on a chlorophyll basis have been determined. The increase in cytochrome f (~ 70%) and plastoquinone (~ 50%) contents occurred with no noticeable lag phase. The increase in photosystem Il reaction centres (PS II, ~ 35%) and ATP synthetase (~ 90%) occurred possibly with a lag period of 1-2 days. In contrast, there was no significant increase in the concentration of P700 (reaction centre) of PS I complex.

The concentration of PS II reaction centres measured by atrazine-binding exceeded that from the O2 yield per single-turnover flash by a factor of 1.17 (compared with the expected value of 1.14); this contrasts with the factor of 1.8 obtained by P. A. Jursinic and R. Dennenberg [Arch. Biochem. Biophys. (1985) 241, 540-9]. It is suggested that both methods are equivalent for the determination of PS II reaction centres in active chloroplasts.

The stoichiometry of PS II : cyt f: PS I was highly flexible, and not fixed at 1 : 1 : 1. We obtained the stoichiometries of 1.25 : 0.7 : 1.0 for low-light pea chloroplasts and 1.7 : 1.25 : 1.0 for chloroplasts in pea plants that had been transferred to high light for about 10 days, demonstrating the dynamic nature of thylakoid composition and function.

In the first 2 days after transferring low light pea plants to high light, the time course of the increase in CO2- and light-saturated rate of leaf photosynthesis corresponded better with that of cyt f and plastoquinone than that of other chloroplast components examined. This suggests that, during the transition period, the relatively prompt increase of cyt b/f and plastoquinone plays a part in enhancing the CO2- and light-saturated rate of leaf photosynthesis.

https://doi.org/10.1071/PP9870009

© CSIRO 1987

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