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Plant and Cell Physiology, 1987, Vol. 28, No. 6 1133-1140
© 1987

Article

Photoinhibition of Photosynthesis and its Recovery in the Green Alga Chlamydomonas reinhardii

Jonas Lidholm1, Petter Gustafsson2 and Gunnar Öquist1

1Department of Plant Physiology, University of Umed S-901 87 Umea, Sweden
2Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Umea S-901 87 Umea, Sweden

Photoinhibition of photosynthesis and its recovery was studied in the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardii. Exposure of the algae for 90 min to photosynthetic photon flux densities (PPFD) above the level where photosynthesis approaches saturation (200 µE.m–2.s–1), resulted in photoinhibition; 50% inhibition at about 1,100 µE.m–2.s–1. The time course of inhibition revealed a rapid initial decline of photosynthesis which below 1,000 µE.m–2.s–1, levelled out after 30 min to reach a steady-state plateau. The recovery process was found to be rapid, reaching completion from 50% inhibition within one hour. In the presence of the plastid translation inhibitor chloramphenicol, PPFDs even well below light saturation of photosynthesis induced severe photoinhibition. Chloramphenicol also prevented recovery, whether or not present during the photoinhibitory treatment. Thus, even under rate limiting light levels plants are dependent on continuous chloroplast protein synthesis to replace photodamaged protein. The plastid transcription inhibitor rifampicin did not promote photoinhibition nor did it prevent recovery. The cytoplasmic translation inhibitor cydoheximide only slightly increased the susceptibility to photoinhibition at very high PPFDs. Our results suggest that at PPFDs up to about four times the light saturation of photosynthesis, the repair function suffices to balance the rate of damage, which confers a steady-state level of photodamage. Our data also suggest that this repair process requires continuous translation of chloroplast messenger(s) of high stability.

(Received February 12, 1987; Accepted June 23, 1987)
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