Effects of inorganic carbon accumulation on photosynthetic oxygen reduction and cyclic electron flow in the cyanobacterium Synechococcus PCC7942

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of inorganic carbon transport and accumulation in Synechococcus PCC7942 on fluorescence quenching, photosynthetic oxygen reduction and both linear and cyclic electron flow. The data presented support the previous findings of Miller et al. (1991) that the accumulation of Ci by the CO2 concentrating mechanism is able to stimulate oxygen photoreduction, particularly so when CO2 fixation is inhibited by PCR cycle inhibitors such as glycolaldehyde. This effect is found with both high and low-Ci grown cells, but the potential for oxygen photoreduction is about two-fold higher in low-Ci grown cells. This greater potential for O2 photoreduction is also correlated with a higher ability of low-Ci cells to photoreduce H2O2. Experiments with a mutant which transports Ci but does not accumulate it internally, indicates that the stimulation of O2 photoreduction appears to be a direct effect of the internal accumulation of Ci rather than from its participation in the transport process. In the absence of Ci, no specific partial reactions of photosynthetic electron transport appear to be inhibited, and the PS 1 acceptors PNDA and MV as well as the PS 2 acceptor DMQ can all run electron transport at levels approaching those during active CO2 fixation. Measurements of P700(+) show that when the cells are depleted of Ci during photosynthesis, P700 becomes more oxidised. This indicates that the resupply of electrons from the intersystem chain is relatively more restricted under conditions of Ci limitation than is the availability of PS 1 electron acceptors. It is proposed that the accumulated Ci pool can directly stimulate the ability of O2 to act as a PS 1 acceptor and that the ability of PS 1 acceptors, such as O2, to relieve restrictions on intersystem electron transfer is perhaps a result of a reduction in cyclic electron flow and a subsequent increase in the oxidation state of the plastoquinone pool.