The size of the light-harvesting antenna of higher plant photosystem ii is regulated by illumination intensity through transcription of antenna protein genes

Abstract

In arabidopsis plants, with an increase in illumination intensity during growth the extent of reduction of the plastoquinone pool in the photosynthetic electron transport chain increased, whereas the effective quantum yield of photosynthesis decreased. After 5 days of growth under high illumination intensity, these parameters in high light returned to values observed in "shade-adapted" plants in low light. During the same period, the size of the antenna decreased, correlating with a decrease in the amounts of proteins of peripheral pigment-protein complexes. It was found that the decrease in the amounts of these proteins occurred due to suppression of transcription of their genes.

Antioxidant and signaling functions of the plastoquinone pool in higher plants

“…The generation of 1 O 2 should be negligible under operation of the whole photosynthetic electron transport chain (Rutherford et al ). It can be proposed that in high light, approximately 400–700 μmol photons m −2 s −1 , when the long‐term acclimation successfully proceeds in Arabidopsis plants without resulting in a strong photoinhibition effect (Borisova‐Mubarakshina et al , our unpublished data), O 2 •− production in PSI can be prevalent over 1 O 2 production in PSII: the production of 1 O 2 is insignificant in this case. Under strong excess light conditions, more than 1000 μmol photons m −2 s −1 , a significant O 2 •− production along with significant 1 O 2 production can probably occur, triggering not only the long‐term acclimatory mechanism but also severe photooxidative stress leading to leaf bleaching, lipid peroxidation and PSII photoinhibition (Ksas et al ).…”

“…The generation of 1 O 2 should be negligible under operation of the whole photosynthetic electron transport chain (Rutherford et al 2012). It can be proposed that in high light, approximately 400-700 μmol photons m −2 s −1 , when the long-term acclimation successfully proceeds in Arabidopsis plants without resulting in a strong photoinhibition effect (Borisova- Mubarakshina et al 2014, our unpublished data), O 2…”

“…High light conditions experienced for more than 3 days lead to a decrease of the light‐harvesting antenna size of PSII by the downregulation of the biosynthesis of several Lhcb proteins, which are encoded by nuclear genes. The decrease in the PSII antenna size helps prevent over‐reduction the PQ pool and the photosynthetic electron transport chain, thus preventing photodamage of the photosynthetic apparatus (Anderson , Lindahl et al , Borisova‐Mubarakshina et al ). More recently, it was shown that the proteolysis of Lhcb proteins is triggered after the first 24 h in high light (Żelisko et al , Wagner et al ).…”

“…Such conditions led to the decrease in the PSII antenna size in low light, which was comparable to that in leaves in high light. Previously it was shown that the biosynthesis of the antenna proteins, which are encoded by nuclear genes, was regulated at the transcriptional or post‐transcriptional level in wild‐type plants rather than at the translational level, since the decrease in the mRNA levels of the Lhcb2, Lhcb3 and Lhcb6 antenna proteins of PSII occurred in high light (Borisova‐Mubarakshina et al ). The influence of elevated amount of H 2 O 2 on the mRNA level of these proteins was also shown (Borisova‐Mubarakshina et al ).…”

The Role of Carbonic Anhydrase αCA4 in Photosynthetic Reactions in Arabidopsis thaliana Studied, Using the Cas9 and T-DNA Induced Mutations in Its Gene

“…These data suggested that the regulation of this protein content is carried out not only at the transcriptional level, but also at the translational level. It was established that the regulation of the antenna protein synthesis can occur at both the translational level [ 40 ] and the transcriptional level [ 41 ]. The difference in the control of the content of Lhcb1 and Lhcb2 proteins included in the LHCII trimers may be of physiological significance, for example, for the adjustment of adaptive antennae rearrangements.…”