Analysis of qualitative contribution of assimilatory and non-assimilatory de-excitation processes to adaptation of photosynthetic apparatus of barley plants to high irradiance

Abstract

The adaptation of barley (Hordeum vulgare L. cv. Akcent) plants to low (LI, 50 μmol m-2s-1) and high (HI, 1000 μmol m-2s-1) growth irradiances was studied using the simultaneous measurements of the photosynthetic oxygen evolution and chlorophyll a (Chl a) fluorescence at room temperature. If measured under ambient CO2 concentration, neither increase of the oxygen evolution rate (P) nor enhancement of non-radiative dissipation of the absorbed excitation energy within photosystem 2 (PS2) (determined as non-photochemical quenching of Chl a fluorescence, NPQ) were observed for HI plants compared with LI plants. Nevertheless, the HI plants exhibited a significantly higher proportion of QA in oxidised state (estimated from photochemical quenching of Chl a fluorescence, qP), by 49-102% at irradiances above 200 μmol m-2s-1 and an about 1.5 fold increase of irradiance-saturated PS2 electron transport rate (ETR) as compared to LI plants. At high CO2 concentration the degree of P stimulation was approximately three times higher for HI than for LI plants, and the irradiance-saturated P values at irradiances of 2 440 and 2 900 μmol m-2s-1 were by 130 and 150% higher for HI plants than for LI plants. We suggest that non-assimilatory electron transport dominates in the adaptation of the photosynthetic apparatus of barley grown at high irradiances under ambient CO2 rather than an increased NPQ or an enhancement of irradiance-saturated photosynthesis.