Cyclic electron flow (CEFI) has been proposed to balance the chloroplast energy budget, but the pathway, mechanism, and physiological role remain unclear. We isolated a new class of mutant in Arabidopsis thaliana, hcef for high CEF1, which shows constitutively elevated CEF1. The first of these, hcef1, was mapped to chloroplast fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase. Crossing hcef1 with pgr5, which is deficient in the antimycin A-sensitive pathway for plastoquinone reduction, resulted in a double mutant that maintained the high CEF1 phenotype, implying that the PGR5-dependent pathway is not involved. By contrast, crossing hcef1 with crr2-2, deficient in thylakoid NADPH dehydrogenase (NDH) complex, results in a double mutant that is highly light sensitive and lacks elevated CEF1, suggesting that NDH plays a direct role in catalyzing or regulating CEF1. Additionally, the NdhI component of the NDH complex was highly expressed in hcef1, whereas other photosynthetic complexes, as well as PGR5, decreased. We propose that (1) NDH is specifically upregulated in hcef1, allowing for increased CEF1; (2) the hcef1 mutation imposes an elevated ATP demand that may trigger CEF1; and (3) alternative mechanisms for augmenting ATP cannot compensate for the loss of CEF1 through NDH.

Cyclic electron flow (CEF) around photosystem I is thought to balance the ATP/NADPH energy budget of photosynthesis, requiring that its rate be finely regulated. The mechanisms of this regulation are not well understood. We observed that mutants that exhibited constitutively high rates of CEF also showed elevated production of H 2 O 2 . We thus tested the hypothesis that CEF can be activated by H 2 O 2 in vivo. CEF was strongly increased by H 2 O 2 both by infiltration or in situ production by chloroplastlocalized glycolate oxidase, implying that H 2 O 2 can activate CEF either directly by redox modulation of key enzymes, or indirectly by affecting other photosynthetic processes. CEF appeared with a half time of about 20 min after exposure to H 2 O 2 , suggesting activation of previously expressed CEF-related machinery. H 2 O 2 -dependent CEF was not sensitive to antimycin A or loss of PGR5, indicating that increased CEF probably does not involve the PGR5-PGRL1 associated pathway. In contrast, the rise in CEF was not observed in a mutant deficient in the chloroplast NADPH:PQ reductase (NDH), supporting the involvement of this complex in CEF activated by H 2 O 2 . We propose that H 2 O 2 is a missing link between environmental stress, metabolism, and redox regulation of CEF in higher plants. I n oxygenic photosynthesis, linear electron flow (LEF) is the process by which light energy is captured to drive the extraction of electrons and protons from water and transfer them through a system of electron carriers to reduce NADPH. LEF is coupled to proton translocation into the thylakoid lumen, generating an electrochemical gradient of protons ðΔμ H +Þ or proton motive force (pmf). The pmf drives the synthesis of ATP to power the reactions of the Calvin-Benson-Bassham (CBB) cycle and other essential metabolic processes in the chloroplast. The pmf is also a key regulator of photosynthesis in that it activates the photoprotective q E response to dissipate excess light energy and downregulates electron transfer by controlling the rate of oxidation of plastoquinol at the cytochrome b 6 f complex (b 6 f), thus preventing the buildup of reduced intermediates (1, 2).LEF results in the transfer or deposition into the lumen of three protons for each electron transferred through PSII, plastoquinone (PQ), b 6 f, plastocyanin, and photosystem I (PSI) to ferredoxin (Fd). The synthesis of one ATP is thought to require the passage of 4.67 protons through the ATP synthase, so that LEF should produce a ratio of ATP/NADPH of about 1.33; this ratio is too low to sustain the CBB cycle or supply ATP required for translation, protein transport, or other ATP-dependent processes (3). In addition, the relative demands for ATP and NADPH can change dramatically depending on environmental, developmental, and other factors, leading to rapid energy imbalances that require dynamical regulation of ATP/NADPH balance.Several alternative electron flow pathways in the chloroplast have been proposed to augment ATP production, thus balancing the ATP/NADPH ...

Cyclic electron flow around photosystem I (CEF1) is thought to augment chloroplast ATP production to meet metabolic needs. Very little is known about the induction and regulation of CEF1. We investigated the effects on CEF1 of antisense suppression of the CalvinBenson enzymes glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (gapR), and ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/ oxygenase (Rubisco) small subunit (SSU), in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum cv. Wisconsin 38). The gapR, but not ssuR, mutants showed substantial increases in CEF1, demonstrating that specific intermediates, rather than slowing of assimilation, induce CEF1. Both types of mutant showed increases in steady-state transthylakoid proton motive force (pmf) and subsequent activation of the photoprotective qE response. With gapR, the increased pmf was caused both by up-regulation of CEF1 and down-regulation of the ATP synthase. In ssuR, the increased pmf was attributed entirely to a decrease in ATP synthase activity, as previously seen in wild-type plants when CO2 levels were decreased. Comparison of major stromal metabolites in gapR, ssuR and hcef1, a mutant with decreased fructose 1,6-bisphosphatase activity, showed that neither the ATP/ADP ratio, nor major Calvin-Benson cycle intermediates can directly account for the activation of CEF1, suggesting that chloroplast redox status or reactive oxygen species regulate CEF1.

We describe a new member of the class of mutants in Arabidopsis exhibiting high rates of cyclic electron flow around photosystem I (CEF), a light-driven process that produces ATP but not NADPH. High cyclic electron flow 2 (hcef2) shows strongly increased CEF activity through the NADPH dehydrogenase complex (NDH), accompanied by increases in thylakoid proton motive force (pmf), activation of the photoprotective qE response, and the accumulation of H2O2. Surprisingly, hcef2 was mapped to a non-sense mutation in the TADA1 (tRNA adenosine deaminase arginine) locus, coding for a plastid targeted tRNA editing enzyme required for efficient codon recognition. Comparison of protein content from representative thylakoid complexes, the cytochrome bf complex, and the ATP synthase, suggests that inefficient translation of hcef2 leads to compromised complex assembly or stability leading to alterations in stoichiometries of major thylakoid complexes as well as their constituent subunits. Altered subunit stoichiometries for photosystem I, ratios and properties of cytochrome bf hemes, and the decay kinetics of the flash-induced thylakoid electric field suggest that these defect lead to accumulation of H2O2 in hcef2, which we have previously shown leads to activation of NDH-related CEF. We observed similar increases in CEF, as well as increases in H2O2 accumulation, in other translation defective mutants. This suggests that loss of coordination in plastid protein levels lead to imbalances in photosynthetic energy balance that leads to an increase in CEF. These results taken together with a large body of previous observations, support a general model in which processes that lead to imbalances in chloroplast energetics result in the production of H2O2, which in turn activates CEF. This activation could be from either H2O2 acting as a redox signal, or by a secondary effect from H2O2 inducing a deficit in ATP.

No abstract