TY - JOUR
T1 - Dynamic acclimation of photosynthesis increases plant fitness in changing environments
AU - Athanasiou, Kleovoulos
AU - Dyson, Beth C.
AU - Webster, Rachel E.
AU - Johnson, Giles N.
PY - 2010/1
Y1 - 2010/1
N2 - Plants growing in different environments develop with different photosynthetic capacities-developmental acclimation of photosynthesis. It is also possible for fully developed leaves to change their photosynthetic capacity-dynamic acclimation. The importance of acclimation has not previously been demonstrated. Here, we show that developmental and dynamic acclimation are distinct processes. Furthermore, we demonstrate that dynamic acclimation plays an important role in increasing the fitness of plants in natural environments. Plants of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) were grown at low light and then transferred to high light for up to 9 d. This resulted in an increase in photosynthetic capacity of approximately 40%. A microarray analysis showed that transfer to high light resulted in a substantial but transient increase in expression of a gene, At1g61800, encoding a glucose-6-phosphate/phosphate translocator GPT2. Plants where this gene was disrupted were unable to undergo dynamic acclimation. They were, however, still able to acclimate developmentally. When grown under controlled conditions, fitness, measured as seed output and germination, was identical, regardless of GPT2 expression. Under naturally variable conditions, however, fitness was substantially reduced in plants lacking the ability to acclimate. Seed production was halved in gpt22 plants, relative to wild type, and germination of the seed produced substantially less. Dynamic acclimation of photosynthesis is thus shown to play a crucial and previously unrecognized role in determining the fitness of plants growing in changing environments. © 2009 American Society of Plant Biologists.
AB - Plants growing in different environments develop with different photosynthetic capacities-developmental acclimation of photosynthesis. It is also possible for fully developed leaves to change their photosynthetic capacity-dynamic acclimation. The importance of acclimation has not previously been demonstrated. Here, we show that developmental and dynamic acclimation are distinct processes. Furthermore, we demonstrate that dynamic acclimation plays an important role in increasing the fitness of plants in natural environments. Plants of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) were grown at low light and then transferred to high light for up to 9 d. This resulted in an increase in photosynthetic capacity of approximately 40%. A microarray analysis showed that transfer to high light resulted in a substantial but transient increase in expression of a gene, At1g61800, encoding a glucose-6-phosphate/phosphate translocator GPT2. Plants where this gene was disrupted were unable to undergo dynamic acclimation. They were, however, still able to acclimate developmentally. When grown under controlled conditions, fitness, measured as seed output and germination, was identical, regardless of GPT2 expression. Under naturally variable conditions, however, fitness was substantially reduced in plants lacking the ability to acclimate. Seed production was halved in gpt22 plants, relative to wild type, and germination of the seed produced substantially less. Dynamic acclimation of photosynthesis is thus shown to play a crucial and previously unrecognized role in determining the fitness of plants growing in changing environments. © 2009 American Society of Plant Biologists.
U2 - 10.1104/pp.109.149351
DO - 10.1104/pp.109.149351
M3 - Article
C2 - 19939944
SN - 0032-0889
VL - 152
SP - 366
EP - 373
JO - Plant Physiology
JF - Plant Physiology
IS - 1
ER -