Thermal Stress, Aggregation of Chlorophyll-Protein Complexes, and Light-Dependent Recovery of PSII activity in Wheat Seedlings

Abstract

Abstract The dynamics of changes in the photochemical activity of photosystem II (PSII) and low-temperature spectra at 77 K in the first leaves of 11-day winter wheat plants Triticum aestivum L., as well as structural changes in chlorophyll-protein complexes (CPC) of thylakoid membranes during recovery after a short-term (20 min) heating at a temperature of 42°C, were studied. Changes in the Fv/Fm, F735/F695, and F735/F685 ratios indicate inhibition of PSII immediately after heating. Using nondenaturing electrophoresis, it was shown that the light-harvesting Chl a/b complex of PSII does not aggregate immediately after heating but after several hours, after 6 h the desagregation of CPC was observed, which was consistent with an increase in the Fv/Fm ratio upon recovery. The influence of temperature, intensity, and quality of light (white, blue, and red light) on the recovery of PSII activity and low-temperature fluorescence spectra was studied. It was concluded that the recovery is a photo-activated low-energy process, independent of photosynthesis, and the most effective in blue light.