Effect of Low Light on Photosynthetic Performance of Tomato Plants—Ailsa Craig and Carotenoid Mutant Tangerine

Abstract

The effects of a five-day treatment with low light intensity on tomato plants—Ailsa Craig and tangerine mutant—at normal and low temperatures and after recovery for three days under control conditions were investigated. The tangerine tomato, which has orange fruits, yellowish young leaves, and pale blossoms, accumulates prolycopene rather than all-trans lycopene. We investigated the impact of low light at normal and low temperatures on the functioning and effectiveness of photosynthetic apparatuses of both plants. The photochemical activities of Photosystem I (PSI) and Photosystem II (PSII) were assessed, and the alterations in PSII antenna size were characterized by evaluating the abundance of PSII-associated proteins Lhcb1, Lhcb2, CP43, and CP47. Alterations in energy distribution and interaction of both photosystems were analyzed using 77K fluorescence. In Aisla Craig plants, an increase in thylakoid membrane fluidity was detected during treatment with low light at a low temperature, while for the tangerine mutant, no significant change was observed. The PSII activity of thylakoids from mutant tangerine was more strongly inhibited by treatment with low light at a low temperature while low light barely affected PSII in Aisla Craig. The obtained data indicated that the observed differences in the responses of photosynthetic apparatuses of Ailsa Craig and tangerine when exposed to low light intensity and suboptimal temperature were mainly related to the differences in sensitivity and antenna complexes of PSII.

Transcriptome analyses reveal photosynthesis-related genes involved in photosynthetic regulation under low temperature stress in Lavandula angustifolia Mill.

“…Some ways in which low temperature interferes with photosynthesis mainly including the disruption of the photosynthetic pigment complex system and the membrane fluidity, the reduction of the photochemical efficiency of plant photosystems (PSI and PSII), the decrease in enzymatic activities, and the changes in electron transfer rate in thylakoid and metabolic processes (Özdemir et al, 2023;Xu et al, 2023). Moreover, low temperature brought photodamage of the PSII reaction center (Velitchkova et al, 2023), altered the light-harvesting antenna system and reaction center structure, disrupted the photosynthetic structure (Sachdev et al, 2023), and caused inhibition of photosynthesis (Zhang et al, 2023), which decreased the photosynthetic capacity (Guo et al, 2023). However, PSII can adjust the photosynthetic rate under abiotic stress because the involvement of PsbQ (PSII oxygen-evolving enhancer protein 3) would be conducive to the mediation of PSII assembly or stability (Bricker and Frankel, 2011;Guo et al, 2023).…”