Plant LHC-like proteins show robust folding and static non-photochemical quenching.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Skotnicova P
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8617258 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Similar Datasets
Project description:Plants grow in a variable environment in regard to soil water and light driving photochemical reactions. Light energy exceeding plant capability to use it for photochemical reactions must be dissipated by processes of non-photochemical quenching (NPQ). The aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of various components of NPQ on the response of Arabidopsis thaliana to fluctuating light and water availability. A laboratory experiment with Arabidopsis thaliana wild type (WT) and mutants npq1 and npq4 grown under optimum or reduced water availability was conducted. Dark-adapted plants were illuminated with fluctuating light (FL) of two intensities (55 and 530 μmol m-2 s-1) with each of the phases lasting for 20 s. The impact of water availability on the role of zeaxanthin and PsbS protein in NPQ induced at FL was analysed. The water deficit affected the dynamics of NPQ induced by FL. The lack of zeaxanthin or PsbS reduced plant capability to cope with FL. The synergy of both of these components was enhanced in regard to the amplitude of NPQ in the drought conditions. PsbS was shown as a component of primary importance in suiting plant response to FL under optimum and reduced water availability.
| S-EPMC9105319 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Microalgae are unicellular photosynthetic organisms considered as potential alternative sources for biomass, biofuels or high value products. However, their limited biomass productivity represents a bottleneck that needs to be overcome to meet the applicative potential of these organisms. One of the domestication targets for improving their productivity is the proper balance between photoprotection and light conversion for carbon fixation. In the model organism for green algae, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a photoprotective mechanism inducing thermal dissipation of absorbed light energy, called Non-photochemical quenching (NPQ), is activated even at relatively low irradiances, resulting in reduced photosynthetic efficiency. Two pigment binding proteins, LHCSR1 and LHCSR3, were previously reported as the main actors during NPQ induction in C. reinhardtii. While previous work characterized in detail the functional properties of LHCSR3, few information is available for the LHCSR1 subunit. Here, we investigated in vitro the functional properties of LHCSR1 and LHCSR3 subunits: despite high sequence identity, the latter resulted as a stronger quencher compared to the former, explaining its predominant role observed in vivo. Pigment analysis, deconvolution of absorption spectra and structural models of LHCSR1 and LHCR3 suggest that different quenching efficiency is related to a different occupancy of L2 carotenoid binding site.
| S-EPMC7738518 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Light intensity and temperature independently impact all parts of the photosynthetic machinery in plants and algae. Yet to date, the vast majority of pulse amplitude modulated (PAM) chlorophyll a fluorescence measurements have been performed at well-defined light intensities, but rarely at well-defined temperatures. In this work, we show that PAM measurements performed at various temperatures produce vastly different results in the chlorophyte Chlorella vulgaris. Using a recently developed Phenoplate technique to map quantum yield of Photosystem II (Y(II)) and non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) as a function of temperature, we show that the fast-relaxing NPQ follows an inverse normal distribution with respect to temperature and appears insensitive to previous temperature acclimation. The slow-relaxing or residual NPQ after 5 minutes of dark recovery follows a normal distribution similar to Y(II) but with a peak in the higher temperature range. Surprisingly, higher slow- and fast-relaxing NPQ values were observed in high-light relative to low-light acclimated cultures. Y(II) values peaked at the adaptation temperature regardless of temperature or light acclimation. Our novel findings show the complete temperature working spectrum of Y(II) and how excess energy quenching is managed across a wide range of temperatures in the model microalgal species C. vulgaris. Finally, we draw attention to the fact that the effect of the temperature component in PAM measurements has been wildly underestimated, and results from experiments at room temperature can be misleading.
| S-EPMC9879819 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) protects plants from the detrimental effects of excess light. NPQ is rapidly induced by the trans-thylakoid proton gradient during photosynthesis, which in turn requires PGR5/PGRL1-dependent cyclic electron flow (CEF). Thus, Arabidopsis thaliana plants lacking either protein cannot induce transient NPQ and die under fluctuating light conditions. Conversely, the NADPH-dependent thioredoxin reductase C (NTRC) is required for efficient energy utilization and plant growth, and in its absence, transient and steady-state NPQ is drastically increased. How NTRC influences NPQ and functionally interacts with CEF is unclear. Therefore, we generated the A. thaliana line pgr5 ntrc, and found that the inactivation of PGR5 suppresses the high transient and steady-state NPQ and impaired growth phenotypes observed in the ntrc mutant under short-day conditions. This implies that NTRC negatively influences PGR5 activity and, accordingly, the lack of NTRC is associated with decreased levels of PGR5, possibly pointing to a mechanism to restrict upregulation of PGR5 activity in the absence of NTRC. When exposed to high light intensities, pgr5 ntrc plants display extremely impaired photosynthesis and growth, indicating additive effects of lack of both proteins. Taken together, these findings suggest that the interplay between NTRC and PGR5 is relevant for photoprotection and that NTRC might regulate PGR5 activity.
| S-EPMC8229092 | biostudies-literature
Project description:In nature, plants experience large fluctuations in light intensity and they need to balance the absorption and utilization of this energy appropriately. Non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) is a rapidly switchable mechanism that protects plants from photodamage caused by high light exposure by dissipating the excess absorbed energy as heat. It is triggered by the pH gradient across the thylakoid membrane and requires the protein PsbS and the xanthophyll zeaxanthin. However, the site and mechanism of the quencher(s) remain unknown. Here, we constructed a mutant of Arabidopsis thaliana that lacks light-harvesting complex II (LHCII), the main antenna complex of plants, to verify its contribution to NPQ. The mutant plant has normally stacked thylakoid membranes, displays no upregulation of other LHCs but shows a relative decrease in Photosystem I (PSI), which compensates for the decrease of the PSII antenna. The mutant plant exhibits a reduction in NPQ of about 60% and the remaining NPQ resembles that of mutant plants lacking chlorophyll (Chl) b, which lack all PSII peripheral antenna complexes. We thus report that PsbS-dependent NPQ occurs mainly in LHCII, but there is an additional quenching site in the PSII core.
| S-EPMC6861128 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Under natural conditions, plants have to cope with numerous stresses, including light-stress and herbivory. This raises intriguing questions regarding possible trade-offs between stress defences and growth. As part of a program designed to address these questions we have compared herbivory defences and damage in wild type Arabidopsis thaliana and two "photoprotection genotypes", npq4 and oePsbS, which respectively lack and overexpress PsbS (a protein that plays a key role in qE-type non-photochemical quenching). In dual-choice feeding experiments both a specialist (Plutella xylostella) and a generalist (Spodoptera littoralis) insect herbivore preferred plants that expressed PsbS most strongly. In contrast, although both herbivores survived equally well on each of the genotypes, for oviposition female P. xylostella adults preferred plants that expressed PsbS least strongly. However, there were no significant differences between the genotypes in levels of the 10 most prominent glucosinolates; key substances in the Arabidopsis anti-herbivore chemical defence arsenal. After transfer from a growth chamber to the field we detected significant differences in the genotypes' metabolomic profiles at all tested time points, using GC-MS, but no consistent "metabolic signature" for the lack of PsbS. These findings suggest that the observed differences in herbivore preferences were due to differences in the primary metabolism of the plants rather than their contents of typical "defence compounds". A potentially significant factor is that superoxide accumulated most rapidly and to the highest levels under high light conditions in npq4 mutants. This could trigger changes in planta that are sensed by herbivores either directly or indirectly, following its dismutation to H(2)O(2).
| S-EPMC3534670 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Photosynthetic pigments of plants capture light as a source of energy for photosynthesis. However, the amount of energy absorbed often exceeds its utilization, thus causing damage to the photosynthetic apparatus. Plants possess several mechanisms to minimize such risks, including non-photochemical quenching (NPQ), which allows them to dissipate excess excitation energy in the form of harmless heat. However, under non-stressful conditions in indoor farming, it would be favorable to restrict the NPQ activity and increase plant photosynthetic performance by optimizing the light spectrum. Towards this goal, we investigated the dynamics of NPQ, photosynthetic properties, and antioxidant activity in the leaves of tomato plants grown under different light qualities: monochromatic red (R), green (G), or blue (B) light (L) at 80 µmol m-2 s-1 and R:G:B = 1:1:1 (referred to as the white light (WL)) at 120 µmol m-2 s-1. The results confirm that monochromatic BL increased the quantum efficiency of PSII and photosynthetic pigments accumulation. The RL and BL treatments enhanced the NPQ amplitude and showed negative effects on antioxidant enzyme activity. In contrast, plants grown solely under GL or WL presented a lower amplitude of NPQ due to the reduced accumulation of NPQ-related proteins, photosystem II (PSII) subunit S (PsbS), PROTON GRADIENT REGULATION-LIKE1 (PGRL1), cytochrome b6f subunit f (cytf) and violaxanthin de-epoxidase (VDE). Additionally, we noticed that plants grown under GL or RL presented an increased rate of lipid peroxidation. Overall, our results indicate the potential role of GL in lowering the NPQ amplitude, while the role of BL in the RGB spectrum is to ensure photosynthetic performance and photoprotective properties.
| S-EPMC8389287 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Photosynthetic microalgae have a high potential for the production of biofuels and highly valued metabolites. However, their current industrial exploitation is limited by a productivity in photobioreactors that is low compared to potential productivity. The high cell density and pigment content of the surface layers of photosynthetic microalgae result in absorption of excess photons and energy dissipation through non-photochemical quenching (NPQ). NPQ prevents photoinhibition, but its activation reduces the efficiency of photosynthetic energy conversion. In Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, NPQ is catalyzed by protein subunits encoded by three lhcsr (light harvesting complex stress related) genes. Here, we show that heat dissipation and biomass productivity depends on LHCSR protein accumulation. Indeed, algal strains lacking two lhcsr genes can grow in a wide range of light growth conditions without suffering from photoinhibition and are more productive than wild-type. Thus, the down-regulation of NPQ appears to be a suitable strategy for improving light use efficiency for biomass and biofuel production in microalgae.
| S-EPMC4758054 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Water supply limitations will likely impose increasing restrictions on future crop production, underlining a need for crops that use less water per mass of yield. Water use efficiency (WUE) therefore becomes a key consideration in developing resilient and productive crops. In this study, we hypothesized that it is possible to improve WUE under drought conditions via modulation of chloroplast signals for stomatal opening by up-regulation of non-photochemical quenching (NPQ). Nicotiana tabacum plants with strong overexpression of the PsbS gene encoding PHOTOSYSTEM II SUBUNIT S, a key protein in NPQ, were grown under differing levels of drought. The PsbS-overexpressing lines lost 11% less water per unit CO2 fixed under drought and this did not have a significant effect on plant size. Depending on growth conditions, the PsbS-overexpressing lines consumed from 4-30% less water at the whole-plant level than the corresponding wild type. Leaf water and chlorophyll contents showed a positive relation with the level of NPQ. This study therefore provides proof of concept that up-regulation of NPQ can increase WUE, and as such is an important step towards future engineering of crops with improved performance under drought.
| S-EPMC11233411 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) helps dissipate surplus light energy, preventing formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). In Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, the thylakoid membrane protein LHCSR3 is involved in pH-dependent (qE-type) NPQ, lacking in the npq4 mutant. Preventing PSII repair revealed that npq4 lost PSII activity faster than the wild type (WT) in elevated O2, while no difference between strains was observed in O2-depleted conditions. Low Fv/Fm values remained 1.5 h after moving cells out of high light, and this qH-type quenching was independent of LHCSR3 and not accompanied by losses of maximum PSII activity. Culturing cells in historic O2 atmospheres (30-35%) increased the qE of cells, due to increased LHCSR1 and PsbS levels, and LHCSR3 in the WT, showing that atmospheric O2 tensions regulate qE capacity. Colony growth of npq4 was severely restricted at elevated O2, and npq4 accumulated more reactive electrophile species (RES) than the WT, which could damage PSI. Levels of PsaA (PSI) were lower in npq4 grown at 35% O2, while PsbA (PSII) levels remained stable. We conclude that even at high O2 concentrations, the PSII repair cycle is sufficient to maintain net levels of PSII. However, LHCSR3 has an important function in protecting PSI against O2-mediated damage, such as via RES.
| S-EPMC7210768 | biostudies-literature