Disentangling the sites of non-photochemical quenching in vascular plants

Lauren Nicol; Wojciech J. Nawrocki; Roberta Croce

doi:10.1038/s41477-019-0526-5

Disentangling the sites of non-photochemical quenching in vascular plants

Lauren Nicol, Wojciech J. Nawrocki, Roberta Croce^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

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.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1177-1183
Number of pages	7
Journal	Nature Plants
Volume	5
Issue number	11
Early online date	28 Oct 2019
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-019-0526-5
Publication status	Published - Nov 2019

Funding

We thank L. Roy for constructing the knockdown line, S. Jansson for the gift of the amiLhcb1 and amiLhcb2 seeds, A. Rubert Albiol for help in selecting the knockdown line and H. van Amerongen for helpful discussion. Electron microscopy was performed at the Vrije Universiteit Electron Microscopy Facility. R.C. received financial support from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) (86510013) and the European Commission (EC) (214113). W.J.N. was supported by a European Commission Marie Curie Actions Individual Fellowship (799083). L.N. received financial support from the New Zealand Government through the Royal Society of New Zealand– Rutherford Foundation.

Funders	Funder number
European Commission Marie Curie Actions
Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research
New Zealand Government
Royal Society of New Zealand– Rutherford Foundation
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme	799083
European Commission	214113
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek	86510013

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This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1038/s41477-019-0526-5

Disentangling the sites of non-photochemical quenching in vascular plantsAccepted author manuscript, 3.96 MBLicence: Article 25fa Dutch Copyright Act
Disentangling the sites of non-photochemical quenching in vascular plantsFinal published version, 3.93 MBLicence: Article 25fa Dutch Copyright Act

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abstract = "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.",

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Disentangling the sites of non-photochemical quenching in vascular plants

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