The Xanthophyll Cycle in Intermittent Light-Grown Pea Plants (Possible Functions of Chlorophyll a/b-Binding Proteins)

The xanthophyll cycle in pea (Pisum sativum L. cv Kleine Rheinlanderin) plants has been investigated in vivo. Control plants were compared with those grown under intermittent light (IML plants). IML plants are particularly characterized by the absence of nearly all chlorophyll a/b-binding proteins. The rates of de-epoxidation during 30 min of illumination and their dependence on the incident photon flux density (PFD) have been determined. They were very similar in both types of plants, with the exception that IML plants contained, at any PFD, much higher zeaxanthin concentrations in the steady state (reached after about 15 min of illumination) than control plants. This indicates that the amount of convertible violaxanthin under illumination is dependent on the presence of chlorophyll a/b-binding proteins. The epoxidation rate (examined at a PFD of 15 [mu]E m-2 s-1, after 15 min of preillumination with different PFDs) showed significant differences between the two types of plants. It was about 5-fold slower in IML plants. On the other hand, in both types of plants, the epoxidation rate decreased with increasing PFD during preillumination. Prolonged preillumination at high PFDs resulted in a decrease of the epoxidation rate without a further increase of the zeaxanthin concentration in both continuous light and IML plants. This result argues against a permanent turnover of the xanthophylls under illumination, at least at high PFDs.

[1]  Z. Krupa,et al.  LHCII, the major light-harvesting pigment-protein complex is a zeaxanthin epoxidase , 1993 .

[2]  B. Demmig‐Adams,et al.  Photoprotection and Other Responses of Plants to High Light Stress , 1992 .

[3]  C. Foyer,et al.  RESPONSES OF PHOTOSYNTHESIS AND THE XANTHOPHYLL AND ASCORBATE-GLUTATHIONE CYCLES TO CHANGES IN IRRADIANCE, PHOTOINHIBITION AND RECOVERY , 1989 .

[4]  Harry Y. Yamamoto,et al.  Biochemistry of the violaxanthin cycle in higher plants , 1979 .

[5]  H. Yamamoto,et al.  Light-induced 18O2 uptake by epoxy xanthophylls in New Zealand spinach leaves (Trtragonia expansa). , 1968, Biochimica et biophysica acta.

[6]  J. Argyroudi-Akoyunoglou,et al.  The effect of the dark interval in intermittent light on thylakoid development: photosynthetic unit formation and light harvesting protein accumulation , 2004, Photosynthesis Research.

[7]  R. Bassi,et al.  Carotenoid-binding proteins of photosystem II. , 1993, European journal of biochemistry.

[8]  H. Yamamoto,et al.  NADPH and oxygen-dependent epoxidation of zeaxanthin in isolated chloroplasts. , 1975, Biochemical and biophysical research communications.

[9]  W. Junge,et al.  Thylakoids from pea seedlings grown under intermittent light: biochemical and flash-spectrophotometric properties. , 1992, Biochemistry.

[10]  A. Young,et al.  The Effects of Illumination on the Xanthophyll Composition of the Photosystem II Light-Harvesting Complexes of Spinach Thylakoid Membranes , 1994, Plant physiology.

[11]  A. Hager,et al.  Veränderung der Lichtabsorption eines Carotinoids im Enzym (De-epoxidase)-Substrat(Violaxanthin)-Komplex , 1970, Planta.

[12]  H. Yamamoto,et al.  Light-induced de-epoxidation of violaxanthin in lettuce chloroPLASTS. III. Reaction kinetics and effect of light intensity on de-epoxidase activity and substrate availability. , 1974, Biochimica et biophysica acta.

[13]  A. Gilmore,et al.  Resolution of lutein and zeaxanthin using a non-endcapped, lightly carbon-loaded C18 high-performance liquid chromatographic column , 1991 .

[14]  A. Hager.  Die Zusammenhänge zwischen lichtinduzierten Xanthophyll‐Umwandlungen und Hill‐Reaktion , 1966, Berichte der Deutschen Botanischen Gesellschaft.

[15]  P. Gustafsson,et al.  Chlorophyll a/b-Binding Proteins, Pigment Conversions, and Early Light-Induced Proteins in a Chlorophyll b-less Barley Mutant , 1995, Plant physiology.

[16]  D. Siefermann-Harms.  The Xanthophyll Cycle in Higher Plants , 1977 .

[17]  H. Matthijs,et al.  In vivo manipulation of the xanthophyll cycle and the role of zeaxanthin in the protection against photodamage in the green alga Chlorella pyrenoidosa. , 1994, The Journal of biological chemistry.