6533b861fe1ef96bd12c41d4

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Correlative Analysis of the Photosynthetic Capacity and Different Components of the Photosynthetic Apparatus

subject

description

The majority of higher plants is able to adapt to the ecological factor light in a wide range. Depending on the light intensity and the light quality during growth, plant with an equal genotype develop into so-called low light and high light forms. The photosynthetic adaptation to different light conditions involves complex, balanced changes of many leaf features. The changes of physiological factors of photosynthesis includes differences in the CO2 conductance, in the Calvin cycle enzymes, the capacity of electron transport, the photophosphorylation and the pigments (Boardman, 1977; Wild, 1979; Bjorkman, 1981; Lichtenthaler et al., 1981). The adaptation of individual plants or leaves to low light or high light conditions can be characterized best through the course of the photosynthetic light-dependence curve. Especially the maximum photosynthetic capacity is sensitive to the light conditions during growth. The research of recent years, however, has shown that not just one factor alone deviates and determines the maximum overall capacity of the photosynthetic apparatus, but that photosynthesis can be rather limited and controlled by a variety of factors. Under optimal exogenous conditions of light intensity and CO2 concentration, the endogenous limiting factors of photosynthesis may be the electron transport in the range of plastoquinone oxidation, the phosphorylation capacity, the Calvin cycle with the carboxylation reaction of the RubP carboxylase or the CO2 conductance with the closing of the stomata.