Revisiting the nonregulatory, constitutive nonphotochemical quenching of the absorbed light energy in oxygenic photosynthetic organisms

Abstract

The present paper aims to open discussion on the information content, physical mechanism(s), and measuring protocols to determine the partitioning of the absorbed light energy in oxygenic photosynthetic organisms. Revisiting these questions is incited by recent findings discovering that PSII, in addition to its open and closed state, assumes a light-adapted charge-separated state and that chlorophyll a fluorescence induction (ChlF), besides the photochemical activity of PSII, reflects the structural dynamics of its reaction center complex. Thus, the photochemical quantum yield of PSII cannot be determined from the conventional ChlF-based protocol. Consequently, the codependent quantity – the quantum yield of the so-called nonregulatory constitutive nonphotochemical quenching (npq) – loses its physical meaning. Processes beyond photochemistry and regulatory npq should be identified and characterized by multifaceted studies, including ChlF. Such investigations may shed light on the putative roles of dissipation and other energy-consuming events in the stress physiology of photosynthetic machinery.