Why do thylakoid membranes from higher plants form grana stacks?

Trissl, H.‐W.; Wilhelm, Christian

doi:10.1016/0968-0004(93)90136-b

Cited by 185 publications

(121 citation statements)

References 31 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

115

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Differences in maximum F v /F m between species and taxa are ascribed to functional and structural differences between the photosystems of the various algal taxa (Bu¨chel & Wilhelm, 1993;Trissl & Wilhelm, 1993). Maximum F v /F m reported for green algae is around 0.83, approaching values measured in higher plants, whereas F v /F m of diatoms usually does not exceed 0.75 (e.g.…”

Section: Field Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Photosynthetic characteristics of the phytoplankton in the Scheldt estuary: community and single-cell fluorescence measurements

Dijkman

Kromkamp

2006

European Journal of Phycology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Estuaries present a very dynamic environment for phytoplankton with large changes in salinity occurring over relatively short distances, usually with high turbidity. We investigated the photosynthetic characteristics of phytoplankton in the Scheldt estuary (Belgium and the Netherlands) along a salinity gradient using community and single-cell fluorescence measurements. Single-cell fluorescence measurements offer the opportunity to study differences between species that were formerly possible only using uni-algal cultures. The objective was to study differences in the photochemical efficiency of photosystem II (F v /F m ) between different species or different genera (when identification to the species level was not possible) and to investigate the effect of salinity on individual species. The difference in F v /F m between species was small, but often significant (ANOVA, p < 0.05), and was found to be a true characteristic of species, as opposed to being caused by stochastic processes affecting cells of all species more or less equally. High algal mortality is implied by a large decline of biomass from freshwater towards higher salinity, as well as a complete change in the phytoplankton composition. Nevertheless, cells with low F v /F m , which would indicate decreased health, were rare. F v /F m of 93% of the measured cells was between 0.5 and 0.8. There was no obvious relation between F v /F m and species abundance. In laboratory studies, green algae are often reported to have a higher F v /F m than diatoms, but we found no indication of this in the Scheldt estuary.

show abstract

Section: Field Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Photosynthetic characteristics of the phytoplankton in the Scheldt estuary: community and single-cell fluorescence measurements

Dijkman

Kromkamp

2006

European Journal of Phycology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The processes of energy equilibration between these low-energy Chls and bulk Chls were extensively studied (see reviews 1,2 ), but the nature, location, and function of these red Chls are still not fully understood. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] The red forms of Chls were characterized in detail for PSI core complexes from several species of cyanobacteria. At 6 K, two spectral pools of these Chls were identified with steadystate absorption/fluorescence line narrowing techniques: one with absorption maximum at 703 nm (C703, Synechococcus PCC 7942) or 708 nm (C708; Synechocystis PCC 6803, Thermosynechococcus elongatus (T. elongatus), Spirulina platensis (S. platensis)) and the other one with absorption maximum at 719 nm (T. elongatus) or at 740 nm (S. platensis).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of Low-Energy Chlorophylls in the PSI-LHCI Supercomplex from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. A Site-Selective Fluorescence Study

et al. 2005

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Almost all photosystem I (PSI) complexes from oxygenic photosynthetic organisms contain chlorophylls that absorb at longer wavelength than that of the primary electron donor P700. We demonstrate here that the low-energy pool of chlorophylls in the PSI-LHCI complex from the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, containing five to six pigments, is significantly blue-shifted (A max at 700 nm at 4 K) compared to that in the PSI core preparations from several species of cyanobacteria and in PSI-LHCI particles from higher plants. This makes them almost isoenergetic with the primary donor. However, they keep the other characteristic features of "red" chlorophylls: clear spectral separation from the bulk chlorophylls, big Stokes shift revealing pronounced electron-phonon coupling, and large homogeneous and inhomogeneous broadening of ∼170 and ∼310 cm -1 , respectively.

show abstract

“…Although not essential for photosynthesis, granal stacking helps to fine-tune (i) photosynthesis, (ii) photoprotection and (iii) acclimation to ever-changing environments [1,[7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. Some advantages associated with thylakoid stacking include: (i) an extremely large membrane surface-to-volume ratio to accommodate an optimally high density of light-harvesting pigments [14]; (ii) an extreme spatial separation of the two photosystems [15] that limits excessive spillover of excitation energy from photosystem II (PSII) to PSI [7,8], specifically to keep the rapidly functioning PSI and the relatively slow PSII apart [11]; (iii) enhancement of non-cyclic photophosphorylation [16]; (iv) regulation of non-photochemical dissipation of energy [10]; (v) delay of premature degradation of D1 protein in PSII [17]; (vi) regulation of non-cyclic versus cyclic electron transport and the associated photophosphorylation [18]; and (vii) a potential increase in photosynthetic capacity for a given chloroplast composition in full sunlight [12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acclimation of leaves to low light produces large grana: the origin of the predominant attractive force at work

Jia

Liggins

Chow

2012

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Photosynthetic membrane sacs (thylakoids) of plants form granal stacks interconnected by nonstacked thylakoids, thereby being able to fine-tune (i) photosynthesis, (ii) photoprotection and (iii) acclimation to the environment. Growth in low light leads to the formation of large grana, which sometimes contain as many as 160 thylakoids. The net surface charge of thylakoid membranes is negative, even in low-light-grown plants; so an attractive force is required to overcome the electrostatic repulsion. The theoretical van der Waals attraction is, however, at least 20-fold too small to play the role. We determined the enthalpy change, in the spontaneous stacking of previously unstacked thylakoids in the dark on addition of Mg 2þ , to be zero or marginally positive (endothermic). The Gibbs free-energy change for the spontaneous process is necessarily negative, a requirement that can be met only by an increase in entropy for an endothermic process. We conclude that the dominant attractive force in thylakoid stacking is entropy-driven. Several mechanisms for increasing entropy upon stacking of thylakoid membranes in the dark, particularly in low-light plants, are discussed. In the light, which drives the chloroplast far away from equilibrium, granal stacking accelerates non-cyclic photophosphorylation, possibly enhancing the rate at which entropy is produced.

show abstract

Why do thylakoid membranes from higher plants form grana stacks?

Cited by 185 publications

References 31 publications

Photosynthetic characteristics of the phytoplankton in the Scheldt estuary: community and single-cell fluorescence measurements

Photosynthetic characteristics of the phytoplankton in the Scheldt estuary: community and single-cell fluorescence measurements

Characterization of Low-Energy Chlorophylls in the PSI-LHCI Supercomplex from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. A Site-Selective Fluorescence Study

Acclimation of leaves to low light produces large grana: the origin of the predominant attractive force at work

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About